Mischief and the Rotten Boat
by Prince-Malice
Summary: AU - GAANARU - NC17 "You see the trouble with Mer-Folk, you can cut off their hair and they won't curse leprosy on your family, but they'll still try to eat you. You can rip off their lower jaw and they can't eat you, but they'll still try to drown you. You can fear them but you'll still follow them, you can hate them but they'll always manage to make you love them." Slice-of-life
1. Chapter 1

**Previously known as AnitaThePapermaster, now referred to as Prince-Malice.**

**The following is a work of fiction, all ownership of the characters belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and I am making no profit from the creation of this story. This is the only time during this fanfic that I will be acknowledging the fact but be aware, it remains. **

**WARNINGS: **_**The following contains; Slash, Language, Sex, Personality Interpretation, Alternate Universes, and Awesomeness. **_

**Mischief and the Rotten Boat**

Allow me to begin by stating that I am genuinely unsure of _when_ this illustrious undertaking began. In fact, whether the beginning could be considered the moment I heard that battery-acid voice or rather, when I took my first post-womb breath of stale air... I knew not.

A good place to start perhaps, that instant when my arm trembled against the weight of a fat duffle bag, the salt of the ocean air coated thick in my mouth. There was nothing like a shriveled boat dock beneath your feet to keep you moving forward.

"_Hey you! With the red hair!"_

Not yet, I haven't quite recalled the beginning, remember?

So I'm walking along this dock because that's all there was, the roads were a ways off and any shop I could have any immediate need for was a few strides away, a few creaky steps on water swollen planks… Not intimidating whatsoever.

It was possible that to the veteran fisherman, the last worry on the mind was the ground giving out beneath your feet, condemning you to a long soak in the world's finest body of water. The ocean, as most refer to it as.

"_I know you can hear me Red! Come here!"_

It's as if my recollections refused to organize themselves, that's not until later in the story… not until after the storm.

For instance, right now it is as sunny as a waitress on her first day. The waves play a tune as they slap against rocks as if they had always intended to get somewhere. Somber they could never quite make it.

Alas, I digress; the peculiarity of dock life was not due to any lack of experience on my part, I had been visiting such areas since I was eye level with my father's knees because of the love my siblings held for the place. No, it was in fact the disturbing clenching in my gut when it sunk in that my feet were never really grounded and I could consider myself as one of the millions that possess a shred of fear for the deep blue.

"It's going to rain soon, you should get inside."

The voice rang over a sales stand piled high with every sort of fish, peaking over from the bounty was a set of emerald eyes and jutting blonde pigtails.

"Impossible." I retorted plainly, trying to ignore the barrier of dead ocean dwellers between my sister and I. "There's not a cloud in sight."

The woman I found myself related to upon birth was named Temari, as boisterous as she was short.

"Aye but the ocean is livid; that, my sweet, is a sure sign of a brewing storm just off the surf." I blinked and glanced back to watch the screaming waves.

"Gaara are you listening to me?"

"Yeah I heard you, do you need help packing up for the day?"

"That sounds perfect, hand me the tarp."

Temari was my senior by ten long years and my oldest sibling. She was one of the reasons I now resided on an aged boat dock in what some refer to as a house and others as a shack… Perhaps shack was not the appropriate word… with electricity, running water and accessible cable (if they ever thought to access it) it was more of a small, shoreline sized home.

Perfect for a couple trying to dig their feet into a fisherman's business; which is what they were. By 'they' I am of course referring to Temari and her much, _much_ younger husband, Shikamaru Nara. I felt the additional 'much' was necessary due to the fact that I am an entire year older than her brilliant beau. And finally, I say 'brilliant' because once he and she hitched, the man had a sure fire plan to kick-starting the lifestyle change that was required for the blonde to accomplish her dream.

That dream being a house on a boat dock attached to a fish stand. It was that same fish stand that she stood at day by day, the one that was adored by many tourists and native born folk alike. In spite of its popularity, the booth never lay empty because of my older brother, Kankuro. A fisherman who when others were splurging on their first car, was saving up for that one dream boat. He sometimes called her Salamander and never sailed her while sober because, as he insisted, that's not how fishing worked.

As of yet his plan had not backfired.

Between the two of them and my lazy yet clever brother-in-law, our father could never tread on the dreams of successful business in the fishing industry and therefore, was forced to keep his mouth closed while he was still alive. That's the lovely part; the other however, is that comfy little half-house that is a blessing for any newly-wed couple with a dream.

As of a week prior that incoming storm, the shack (there I go again) housed four, all of whom were very appreciative of their privacy whether it be to consummate a recent marriage, to drink in grave solidarity, or in my case, close my eyes and imagine myself as far away from the churning seas as possible.

Such a thing was difficult when the walls rattled from each asthmatic breath the wind let loose upon it.

"_NO! DOWN HERE! YOU'RE LOOKING THE WRONG WAY FELLA!" _

Why was I here again? It was easy to forget. With two years of college down and still unable to decide what it was in life I wished to further pursue, I had come to the decision to take a year off and just think about what it is I truly wanted. Some could say it was a spiritual journey, others, nothing more than a change of scenery. Either way, when Temari heard of my search for a temporary living space, she dusted off the welcome mat and set me up on a cot that wasn't quite horrible.

I will take this opportunity to note that Kankuro snores, something like the sound of a pig at the slaughter.

Between him and the wind any hopes for sleep vanished.

And then came the rain.

The next morning I ventured out in the torrents, eyeing each boat as it rocked under the slapping downpour. Fourteen hours of nonstop rain, I cursed my sister's accurate reading of the waves. And now, clad in a heavy plastic overcoat and hood, I made my way slowly down the way, hand grasped on a soggy rail. It took triple the usual time to get to the pub; walking in I could already recognize a handful of faces from the tight community that was the boat docks.

The thin brunette with her hair brushed back offered a smile and a seat. "A pint I guess." I requested, hanging my coat on a rack by the door. That's how small this town was; they still had public coat racks. "That best be of root beer." I rolled my eyes and offered a grimace (it was nearer a smile than my usual placid expression) "Ay, how about whatever you think settles well." I would not be twenty-one for another half year and Shizune, a new-found friend and neighbor of my sister, was well aware of it.

But it never hurt to try.

I ended up with a tall mug of hot cider in my hands, each sip thawing my insides in just the right way.

"Thank you."

The woman smiled and settled herself against the counter, small breasts perking up a bit at the extra support. "Don't reckon you'll be wantin' anythin' else with that?" Her eyes slipped closed and her accent inviting, Shizune was calm in comparison to the other inhabitants of the region and perhaps that's why I felt close to comfortable in her presence.

"I don't suppose you have almonds?"

"Aye! I'll bet we do, wait a bit."

She walked off.

Now, as I had mentioned already, a number of people that laughed and drank whiskey just behind where I sat I was familiar with. Though, the loudest of the bunch was a man with snow white hair that trailed down his back. Skin thick from the salty air and one nasty wart beneath a wrinkled eye, the old man known only as Jiraiya had sailed the open waters for four decades yet no one really knew why.

Only ever fishing for his own dinner, the man and his boat were rarely apart; he ate, slept, and fraternized on it, surprising his lot of friends when he walked the fifteen paces to the pub for a pint.

Perhaps it had something to do with the rain…

"Aha! I've slept a fortnight on deck in an angry hurricane, this is nothing more than a drizzle compared to the storms I've seen!" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes; it seemed to be nothing but a waste of energy. "But be warned, whether a tinkle or a doozey, it's not safe to be stirring up sea waters." His voice was bellowing, impossible to ignore; yet every sailor was the same, boasting about some endeavor or knowledge that nobody could ever vouch for.

"Here you are, Gaara." A small bowl of toasted almonds set before me, I fished for my wallet. "Don't worry about it, your sis cuts me a mean deal on herrin', so fill up and don't be shy, boy." I nodded my thanks and dropped a five in her tip jar, causing her to give me that strange look that reminded me of a mother I never had.

"You see, when the ocean is churned, it's almost like a crawfish broil… all the veggies and junk no one wants gets swept up to the surface," "What're you implying?" The silver-haired companion beside him noted nonchalantly, setting his mug down. Jiraiya looked back and forth with suspicion, to be honest a bit of curiosity spiked within me.

"Sea devils."

And then laughter bound off the walls and glass shattered, Shizune was at attention quick as ever. "Mr. Jiraiya! There will be none of that in this establishment, if you and your friends don't calm ye selves, I'm going to have to ask that you leave." For the first time of the night, I openly stared at the group, Jiraiya on his feet and mug nothing but a pile of shards on the floor where he had thrown it in a fit of rage.

"You laugh now Kakashi but I've been on the waters for thrice your life, you ain't a man of the sea if you don't fear its devils." The brunette hostess had a broom out and was quickly cleaning the mess, muttering profanities under her breath about adding the cost of the glass to the group's bill.

To be fair it couldn't have cost much.

The man with the heavy wrinkles under his black eyes had created his own metaphorical soap box and didn't hesitate a moment to raise his voice. "I've seen one many a time." More laughter, something entirely expected out of a group of sailors after a few too many drinks.

"One? So you're sayin' it's the same one?" The last of my cider was drained and I found myself staring at the leftover beads collecting on the rim of my glass. "That is _exactly_…" Another beer in the air, his rapid arm movements spilling torrents of the ale to the floor; Shizune having her work beyond cut out for her.

"What I am saying."

"How many times have you seen this one?" Liquid splashing, chairs scraping, I was near to just rising and walking out of the small pub and not looking back.

I never could tolerate much theatrics.

"More than I have digits. You see he follows me around, wants to snack on my raw _flesh_."

Jiraiya slipped quickly into the story-teller mode that every sailor possessed, his hands shifting to make the motions of whatever words came from his mouth. "He? Did you just say he?" Kakashi balked, slamming his mug down with an unnecessary _crack_. "Don't tell me your little water fairy was a little water _fairy_."

More boisterous laughter, it was beginning to make my head throb. "Hah! Laugh you may, but this was no _fairy_, those kind are soft and wily; seductresses in a way. Not this one, this one was cruel and cunning, I was a lad when he first charmed himself onto my boat and ever since he's done so again and again, his long tail just draping over the edge like a snake."

I rolled my eyes, swiveling my barstool to openly stare at the scene. Mermaids, this man was talking about mermaids… I had been visiting these sorts of places since I was very young and yet I couldn't recall ever hearing someone talk so intently about a large fish with the upper half of a woman.

Or was it a woman with the lower half of a large fish?

"So this man was a mermaid?" "Not a mermaid, what a ludicrous and overly-mainstreamed term. He was a devil straight from the deepest trench, with skin the color of paper and tiny, yellow eyes." The look in Jiraiya's was one of recollection, focusing on an image that none of us could see. "I'd never seen anything quite like it, thick black hair that hung everywhere like a curtain as he beckoned me back into the sea with him."

Iruka, a mousey man with a large scar painted across his nose piped up. "And then what? This creature of a man seduced you?" Chuckles echoed and the tips of Jiraiya's ears went scarlet, his mouth opening and stuttering out a response.

"T-Trust me, if the thing had tits I'd be a goner."

Every glass went up in the air. "Cheers to Jiraiya's unwavering heterosexuality!"

And that's around the time I tuned out, finishing my almonds and trying to picture a creature of the deep with a snake-like mermaid tail and small gold eyes.

()()()()()()

Just off the start of the largest pier is a small shop referred to as "Tackle and Things". Tackle and Things is just what it sounds like; the most convenient spot to pick up bait, bobbers, line, and then of course, _things_.

Now you are probably wondering by now what things are, the first time I ever laid eyes on the place I had been almost curious myself. That is, if I could find the effort to be curious over something so meaningless at the moment.

I suppose back then, before I met Naruto, everything was close to meaningless.

Now, _things_, those would be the type of things that people in the area did not necessarily _not_ want, so much as not _need_. Little tidbits and hand-me-downs and donated nothings stacked every shelf in the back half of the shop, things such as prescription pill bottles with names marked out in sharpie to lamps without a lamp shade. Although it's true that not much use could be found of such things, that which _can_ be found of use are usually in very small quantities and gone within mere hours.

Pocket knives, socket wrenches, flashlights, and batteries; though never really an even number of the batteries…

I was there for Kankurou, every other day or so I'd buy him a bucket of live shrimp. It never ceased to amaze me (figure of speech, I was hardly ever, truly, amazed) how quick some items came and went, yet others collected dust for months.

At the register, mounted on the wall behind the shop's owner, was the dried out upper half of a monkey stitched poorly to some equally dehydrated fish. I had remembered that mount from when I was too short to see over the counter, though it was no wonder not a single person wanted to buy the poor thing.

It was beyond ugly.

"Do you really believe that that's what they look like?" I asked, the owner shifting her sea colored eyes to the wall.

Her name was Tsunade, old enough to have helped raise half the sailors living on these docks and yet still looking as young as the first day I was dragged into her shop by an overly excited brother. Not a wrinkle in sight and never a strand of grey in her long straw colored hair that settled evenly over her shoulders.

She had been my self-proclaimed friend for close to fourteen years, always said I had something that made me stand out from the others.

I think what she meant was that I had no friends.

"Of course not, mermaids look just how you'd imagine them; only prettier than the ocean is deep." If I had the energy, I would have called her on how corny she was sounding but the way her voice fell into a sort of song, the way her expression relaxed, she looked right at home.

"You seem to like them. Mermaids, I mean."

The woman had a laugh like ice dropping to the floor; it was cold and sarcastic and caught me off guard. "Like is a word I'm not very fond of, but I'll admit I've a great deal of respect for the damn things." If I could smile it would be then, in fact, I'm sure my face must have twitched because the old bat's eyes lit up like candles in a cellar.

"They're not just a sight to look at; they're _mystical_, downright magicians. Real ones and I don't mean pulling rabbits out of seashells or whatever _the fuck_ you may have just pictured in your head." She was close, though the image I got was more of pulling a fish out of a seashell rather than a rabbit. "No trivial tricks here, albeit it is likely more than one sailor has lost his inhibitions to a mindless trick such as the figure of a loved one drowning in the ocean."

Her gaze grew hard.

"Sea witches, that's what they are, and they prefer things like plagues and misfortune. The inability to catch even the most pitiful guppy is a curse a sailor may off himself for possessing. Needless to say…" Her voice had thinned out, trailing off as the bell above the shop door rang and in walked a meek girl with long night blue hair.

Tsunade smiled and cast a wave, lowering her voice and leaning close to me.

When had I started to lean in?

"They strike where it hurts the most."

Two fingers reached out and gave me a gentle tap to the heart.

As the woman turned around to weigh my bucket of shrimp, I thumbed a small seashell that lay alone in a wooden box; scrawled on a poorly placed sticker was the price of forty-five cents. Without thinking I put it on the counter, Tsunade's voice still hushed as she spoke.

"It's a shame you can't simply kill the mongrels… although hope was not all lost." I knew by her change of pitch that she possessed that same theatrical trait that anyone who loved the sea shared. "If you catch one," Her hand fell down in a chopping motion, the bucket of shrimp splashing as she dropped it back on the counter. "Just take a knife to its hair. A sea witch can live forever but their hair can never grow back. Chop the hair and you take away its magic…. Permanently."

The smile on her face spoke of great satisfaction, her long manicured fingers punching numbers in the register. "Why do you think most people think they be only legends?" I never even had the chance to open my mouth in reply. "Aye!" Another excited slam, any hopes of being discrete thwarted. "Because with not many a magical mermaid running around, they can't cause hurricanes or curse the loved ones of a sailor it desires. How easy we forget about something if it is no longer a threat to society."

Twenty-two dollars and twelve cents.

I lifted a hand in fair well.

"I have a saddle you might find interest in. It comes with a bit and I'll give it to ya for the steal of forty-seven dollars."

"I think I will pass."

Her painted lips formed a pout of sorts, much too attractive for a woman of her age.

"It's been nice talking to you boy, give your sister a hello for me."

I nodded and reflected on earlier in the pub, Jiraiya had claimed that his mermaid had long waterfalls of obsidian hair…

That would imply that the old man's nemesis of sorts could use magic.

I amused the thought that maybe that's why the man never settled down anywhere.

To some that would have been a horrible curse.

So I trudged home in the rain.

**A/N: Chapter one finished! So we don't see any Naruto yet but alas, he shall arrive in time. I already have finished most of this story and will be posting it chapter by chapter probably every five days or so, just to portion it out.**

**Please feel free to review, I enjoy your thoughts.**

**And check out my Prompt Blog on Tumblr, the link is in my profile and I accept many prompts from many different fandoms. Check out the approved pairing list before posting your prompt! **

**Malice out. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well here is the next chapter for those of you who are interested! Thank you for the reviews!**

**I want to state here that everyone in this fic has different opinions of what the 'Mermaid's are and that is why they are called different things by different people. **

**Other than that enjoy! **

_Drip_.

My eyes were wide open, pinned on the wooden roof above my head.

_Drip_.

The storm was raging on through the night and at some point Kankuro must have placed a bucket under the leaking crack in the ceiling. The aforementioned man was out cold on the twin cot across the room, his rumbling snores shaking me to the bone.

I hardly ever slept, and yet, I slept more than I ever had growing up. Looking in the mirror each morning it was impossible to hide the heavy dark patches around my eyes from my insomnia days, with my startling red hair I looked like something chewed up and spit out of some circus.

Or at least that's what my classmates used to say.

I spent hours listening to that mindless sound, each drop ringing like a bell inside my head until I somehow managed to fall asleep.

In sleep I dreamt about a soft whistling voice; sinking into its inviting embrace, all the other horrid noises stopped.

"_Do you think you could lend me a hand?"_

I'm not sure when I woke up, I just know that one moment I was dreaming and the next I was staring at the roof once again, this time illuminated from the sunlight tiptoeing through the curtain-less window.

It appeared at first glance that the storm had gone.

I may not have had the brightest disposition but even I needed fresh air every day, so I dressed myself and took notice that Kankuro was already gone, likely at sea breaking in the new shrimp. Downstairs, Temari whistled jovially and flipped pancakes like she'd been doing it for years; with a slight mouth twitch, I recalled that she had, in fact, been making them for Kankuro and I for as long back as I could remember.

"Gaara, if you plan to go outside at least bring a raincoat, it's supposed to drizzle sometime around noon." I nodded despite how bright the world looked beyond the window above the stove; eyes could easily be fooled after a day of heavy storms. Pulling over a ludicrously yellow plastic raincoat, I stole a single plain pancake off of my sister's serving plate and made quick work of it with my hands, tearing off and eating bite by bite.

Although I had not been wrong in how considerably bright it was outside, there was still a dense layer of grey clouds spread out like a comforter over the docks and as far as I could see out into the ocean. Each gust of wind tasted like sand and sea, reminding me why I never liked this place as a child.

Still it wasn't as if I loved it now.

I had half a mind to avoid the particularly water-swollen planks of the deck, making my way anywhere that would be a good stretch of the legs.

I didn't get far before passing by Jiraiya's old cretin of a boat, the very similar owner waving with an absurdly large hand. "Hey boy! Be watching yourself, nothing draws out sea devils like a vile storm!" I made a point to keep my gaze directly in front of me although nodding to acknowledge him. Behind me I could still hear his laughter as the distance between us grew vaster.

At the time, I just couldn't seem to comprehend how he had become so senile.

I would soon learn something of it in the swallowing grey of the mid-morning. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the most brilliant shade of orange glisten from the water. Stopping mid-step, I turned to see what had caught my attention, only to find it gone.

It had been the brightest thing I'd seen in so long, now all that remained were murky, stale waters. Maybe that's why I found myself leaning against the railing, looking down at the waves.

And then I heard it.

"Hey you! With the red hair!"

And now we come back to the other beginning, the one where the blonde and I actually met and that acidic voice invaded my ears for the first of many times.

Glancing behind me, I searched for the source of the voice only to find I was apparently the only person out on the docks.

"I know you can hear me Red! Come here!"

Turning back, I leaned farther over the rail and felt my breath go shallow.

I blinked once. Twice. The image before me neither changing nor fading.

In the water was a boy with a mop of yellow hair.

"Do you think you could lend me a hand?"

Try as I might, I could not find any form of proof that the moment was a dream, from up here I could see how bright is eyes were; something akin to the blue of the water on the brightest days. Contrasting his short mess of yellow locks was skin tanned by likely years of simply _living_ under a brilliant sun. Treading there in the water below, he looked absurdly unreal with those orbs watching me expectedly like something out of an old story.

I was climbing over the railing without a moment of hesitation, finding footing on a two foot wide plank used to string up small boats.

"My leg is caught in a net or something, these fisherman really need to start properly disposing of their equipment, not just tossing it overboard." There was a bit of resentment in his tone and upon further inspection I found that he was indeed tangled in a net hooked up on the docking plank.

Grabbing at the net's source, I dragged it towards me, the blonde drifting closer with each handful I left behind. When the stranger was close enough, he held out a small hand for assistance, my own reaching out to meet his out of reflex. He took my hand with his. The gesture itself was very warm and that warmth traveled up to his eyes.

Body rising from the waters he brought its salty scent with him; the two of us standing on that ledge and staring blandly at each other while he kicked off the offending rope object.

It took several jolts of the leg, which at some point I had looked down to notice something else aside from the now discarded net.

"Why are you naked?"

And he was, although I made a subconscious point not to stare it became quickly obvious that his tan was an all-over deal.

"I'm sorry," His throat (scratchy like sand) purred sarcastically. "What do _you_ wear when you go for a swim?"

It was an amusing statement; anyone who knew me knew one thing for sure.

"I don't swim."

A pale eyebrow stood slowly, an expression of pure confusion evident on his face. I could imagine how blank mine must have looked at the time despite how confused I was at what had just occurred.

By that I mean finding a naked boy with a never-before-seen eloquence tangled in a discarded fish net.

"And certainly not in the ocean."

He couldn't have seemed more offended had I tried.

Scanning over his bare body carelessly, I thought to pass the boy my raincoat, a gift he accepted with much gratitude in his eyes. Putting it on and buttoning it, no one would be the wiser that the teen wore anything less than at least a pair of swim trunks beneath its confines.

A saying came to mind, something along the lines of beauty and a potato sack, yet the rest escapes me.

"Do you mean to say that you can't swim?" He jumped up to the ledge, dragging himself over and onto the safe footing of the docks. Arms up, I grabbed the rail and hoisted myself over after him, the young man tapping his toes as if testing the solid wood below.

"Your assumption is insulting, I said that I don't swim, I did not say that I couldn't." Even I was surprised at how much he had me talking, but it wasn't everyday you- well, you already know what happened.

"So…" He paused and let me catch up with him, walking in a direction I hadn't cared about at the time, just for the sake of walking. "You _can_ swim?" I nodded once, noticing that the good people of the Konoha docks were finally out and about though paying the two of us no heed.

With me in my faded old jeans and with him in nothing but a banana yellow raincoat that came to his knees.

But they didn't have to know that part.

"If you can swim, you should. Simple as that." I rolled my eyes and found myself staring at his skinny ankles. Consequently, this led to my gaze traveling up his calves and focusing on the rim of that jacket. The whole time I had been wondering if he was really not bothered at all about his public displays of nudity.

"Are you from around here?" I found myself asking, realizing one of the reasons I was so startled by him was that I had never before seen the boy.

That said a lot because although I'd only been living here near a week, these docks had been a greater part of my life. Konoha was small and everyone seemed to have a good knowledge of everyone else but I'm completely sure I'd remember a boy whose eyes gleamed like oceanic marbles.

"Yes and no." It made no sense to me but it put a shit-eating grin right on his face. "I've come from nearby, and before that, I came from nearby there." It appeared that he hardly knew what he was saying, smile fading and brows furrowed as he searched for the appropriate words.

Before long the two of us were in front of the pub, just outside the doors were a large group fishermen who referred to themselves as 'Akatsuki'; they were laughing and gesturing each other in one at a time, the few I actually spoke to turning enough to cast me an invitational wave.

"I better go."

The voice had gone from light-hearted to something more anxious, the blonde eyeing the boisterous group of sailors with caution. "Hmn." I replied, his hands patting along my coat.

"I'll return this to you." He tried, tilting his head yet gaze never straying from the group before us.

"Don't feel compelled to, it's cheap and we come by them easily."

Before I could pull away his little warm hand settled on my arm, skin instantly thawing where his fingertips grazed. "Thank you." And he was gone, heading in the very direction we had just come from.

Part of me wondered where he had been going, another if he even knew where he was going.

I thought back to his fleeting touch, the way his skin had felt against mine.

It was smooth like a pearl.

I stared until his mess of hair disappeared into the dim distance, not realizing how much life had already changed for me in that single encounter.

Inside the pub was the same atmosphere as every other day, it was damp but warm and the faces were all friendly enough no matter how put-off from you they may be in private. Something else that had become reoccurring now was the bellows of Jiraiya and the irritation plastered on Shizune's otherwise sweet face.

"The devil is back, just as I said he would be!"

"I swear to the lord if he breaks another-"

"You're lyin'! There's no such thing as a sea devil!"

"I saw him you hear? His hair was everywhere beneath my boat, polluting the water like black ink and so I hightailed it to the dock, no way was I putting up with that bastard today no sir!"

"Excuse me sir but please try to not rile yourself up again-"

I took a swig of cider and tried to sort through the flurry of outbursts from every direction, deducing somehow that the old man was convinced his mermaid was back to finish him off.

"So," Kakashi piped up, downing his ale with sickening ease, "Why hasn't he dragged your ass away yet?" Everyone laughed, slamming hands to the table and overall making enough of an uprising for Shizune's hair to stand on end.

"Isn't it obvious, I'm on good ol' dry land."

"And what does that matter, can't they just grow legs?" The voice was Iruka's and sounded far less patronizing than the silver-haired man who clung suspiciously close to him. "Aye, it's true the wily beasts _can_ in fact, spout legs, but only if they've had…" He makes a swinging motion with his arm; much like Tsunade had the day before. "The chop."

"You see, if a mermaid's hair has never been cut, it is forbidden for them to walk upon land."

"That sounds like something straight out of fairytale."

"Just try to ignore them Sweet, want anything else?"

I tried to take Shizune's advice but a seed of curiosity had already been planted.

"Almonds."

"Toasted?"

I nodded and she was off.

"Poke fun all you like but the gods certainly thought it was unfair to give sea devils magic _and_ the ability to prey on humans in their own houses." I felt like I was in school again, listening to the mad ramblings of an over-zealous teacher. "Now, take into account that a devil can only feast on you in the ocean… With their long hair and magic they can draw you right into the sea. Without their magic however, they are allowed to climb on shore so they can drag their victims back with their own inviting hands."

The laughter had died down and there was a dangerous seriousness in the air. "Sounds like some sort of horror story." Kakashi's voice had calmed from its accusatory tone into one of mild penitence. Maybe it had something to do with the hand Iruka had settled on his thigh beneath the table, the one I could only see because of my angle from across the room.

Jiraiya's story seemed to go right along with what Tsunade had been telling me in her shop; something right out of the old legends.

Eating my almonds, I finally managed to block Jiraiya's voice out. Partially because I didn't really care about what else he had to say, though I think it was mostly the memory of two stark blue eyes keeping me distracted.

I never got the young man's name.

A sturdy hand clapped my back twice, knocking me from my reverie. I looked up to meet the not-so-blue gaze of Deidara, member of the Akatsuki and long time acquaintance of mine. "You're quiet, but then again, you're always quiet, yeah." His blonde hair was long and flat as it settled on his shoulders, half pulled up into a messy clip. "Mind if I take a seat?"

I nodded, welcoming the distraction from my previous… distraction. "Sasori! Hidan! Come here! Yeah." I wasn't surprised, Deidara was quite the social butterfly and hardly went anywhere without a surrounding group.

The two that followed his call were also in his fisherman society; the one with hair like dried blood and tired grey eyes was Sasori and although he looked young, everyone knew he was one of the older sailors. The other one was Hidan, his pale skin only beat out by his snow white hair, creating quite the demonizing image when one caught sight of his sharp red eyes.

No one knew if they were real or not but I'd never been compelled to ask.

Together the three of us drank, me my cider and them something much stronger.

"That Jiraiya sure is batshit crazy." Deidara chuckled, tapping purple nails on the bar.

"I can't say that I agree with you." The passive objection came from Sasori who was oddly talkative that day. "I've heard them before, I'm sure of it. Out by the coral reefs at night if you strain your ears, it's like they never stop singing." Hidan broke out into laughter, thanking Shizune for her instant refilling of his mug. "

Maybe you're just fucking hearing things."

Deidara rose his glass in a toast to the sewer-mouthed man.

"Maybe not, maybe someone just needs to catch one and string up for all to see."

The two laughed while Sasori and I just stared, silently agreeing that the louder the two got, the more foolish they seemed.

That moment was the living proof that no one should take a boisterous man by nature and feed him anything that may bend his inhibitions. "I don't fuckin' think anyone in their right Goddamn fuckin' mind would want to catch one of those. For _fuck's_ sake, just shoot the bastards."

Wasn't his vocabulary utterly _extensive_?

"There are hunters you know, for the _mermaids_." Sasori had piped up, licking amber beads of ale from his lower lip, an action that seemed to floor the blonde a bit.

"As one would assume; Vampire hunters, Werewolf hunters, Witch hunters, why not mermaids yeah?"

Eyeing my empty glass, I realized that somehow I had been dropped right in the middle of one of those ludicrous conversations I had sworn to myself I'd never have.

"They make good money I hear but sometimes they say it's plain personal." Out of the group, Sasori was the one who harbored the most respect from me, so hearing him speak about it with complete nonchalance was probably the first thing that made me into a believer.

Yes, you read correctly. After this story closes, I am a very firm believer in the existence of mermaids.

Back to the bar, Deidara had his hands up in exasperation, shouting how Sasori had to be wrong because there were no mermaid trophies or the like. "They used to catch them, cut off all their hair, right to their ears." A hand went up to touch his own short, cropped locks. "Then they just toss 'em back. No harm no foul."

For a while he told us about how most mermaids stayed away from humans after being scorned so horribly, yet recently they'd grown hungry.

"Boating is dying off nowadays and it's far more difficult to snatch a meal off a cruise liner. They're probably getting desperate and coming to land, that's why the need for hunters reappeared so suddenly."

"Refills boys?" Shizune with her perky attitude had appeared, finally at peace now that the strident brigade from before had left.

"Aye miss, nice day for it."

She filled the three Akatsuki's glasses and offered me more cider. "No room; thanks anyway."

So that makes two people on this dock I wasn't discontent with; Shizune and Sasori.

I thought back to the blonde wrapped in my raincoat. Funny, when had I ever referred to it as _my_ raincoat?

He hadn't been ultimately intolerable either.

But then there was someone whom I could say for a fact I had no preference for. They called him Kakuzu and after seeing the man for years at a distance, for the first time I had the pleasure of meeting him face to face when he showed up behind us as if from nowhere.

"I've had my own toss with one of those _creatures_."

Deidara shivered and shot the man a grimy look, Sasori tossing the blonde one that read '_behave_' as if warning a child. Hidan seemed to be the only one excited at the man's appearance. "Greetings shit-head, isn't that how you got those scars of yours?" The platinum man cooed, taking a long swig of his ale.

"Ay, she was quite the bitch if I ever met one."

I rolled my eyes, I was sure he had.

"Had rich blue hair cut off crudely, big black demon eyes and claws that looked like something off a bad Halloween costume."

I didn't want him to sit but held no authority to tell him otherwise, so he joined us at the bar, Shizune rushing to serve him a drink. His skin was copper and his brown hair greasy from a day's work; I was under the impression that if I touched him, he would be sticky.

And that was neglecting to mention the hundreds of scars littering his arms.

"She had me in the water already, was a beautiful thing before she tried to eat me. Once we were in that water though, I saw her for what she really was and all the clawing and blood everywhere was no child's game. I thought for sure that my time had come."

"Shame it wasn't so yeah?"

A thump, I could only assume it was Sasori's foot striking out at the loudmouth's.

"Her mouth was open, jaw unhinging like nothing I'd ever seen so I did all I could do."

He let the silence thicken a bit before continuing.

"I grabbed it and yanked. One hand in her hair, the other ripping at her teeth, I don't even know how I managed it but I tore that jaw clean off." Staring at the size of the man's arms, I could see how he'd conjured the strength to do such a feat; they were only about as thick as my head.

"But she just wouldn't relent, screaming and bleeding she tried for five whole minutes to drag me down with her. Needless to say eventually she just scampered off to lick her wounds. I have her jaw mounted in my boat, all pretty with her lower lip just as red as the day I met her."

The four of us watched Kakuzu down his entire pint in one extended swig.

"You see the trouble with Mer-Folk, you can cut off their hair and they won't curse leprosy on your family, but they'll still try to eat you. You can rip off their lower jaw and they can't eat you, but they'll still try to drown you. You can fear them but you'll still follow them, you can hate them but they'll always manage to make you love them. Sometimes I wonder if you cut their tail clean off, would they just drag their upper bodies around the ocean floor?"

Something similar to laughter flooded from his dry throat, the idea probably invoking some morbidly comical image in his head. "I'm off then, have a night of fishing ahead so I best be on my way." With that he stood, leaving his lone mug to itself.

"Need a net boy?"

Kakuzu never bothered to answer yet Hidan was up and after him anyway, casting us a silent farewell.

"I call bullshit." Deidara snorted after the two had cleared the door. "If that man does have a jaw mounted on his boat it ain't no mermaid, probably just some poor woman who he swooned away, never to see what was coming. Yeah." Sasori gave a small smile, something that was few and far between.

"I wonder…" The redhead mused. "How will Hidan's jaw look mounted to a wall?"

And then there was laughter, bellows from the blonde, dry snickers from Sasori, and my own twitch of the lips.

When I finally left the pub hours past my initial intention, it was drizzling.

Holding a hand out to the subtle rain, I thought about how Temari would react to me 'losing' my jacket.

It wasn't as if I had any plans whatsoever to tell her about the naked boy in the net.

**A/N: Second chapter, hope you are all enjoying! **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you all for such lovely reviews! I'm g;ad to hear that I have you all intrigued.**

**As for whether Naruto is a mermaid or not, that is exactly what Gaara is going to be kicking himself over for quite a while.**

**I am also going to mention that this is in no way intended to be a dark or depressing story. It is more along romantic comedy/drama. **

**Read on. **

I've stated before that it was on rare occasions that I slept though it was no secret that when I did manage to, I was always plagued with the strangest dreams.

When the day had come to a close and darkness swallowed the docks up, I let my eyes drift shut. The sound of Kankuro's snores faded and somewhere in the back of my mind I dug up an image. Some would have found it grotesque, others, a fascinating sign of fixations to come.

I looked out upon a vast ocean in which there was a mermaid.

She had crudely cut blue hair just past her ears, from behind the messy locks glowed two black marble eyes. The woman although looking towards me, appeared to see right through me as she sang in a horrible, pained moaned.

This was probably because her lower jaw had been torn clean off, leaving behind a bloody mess of stretched flesh and a long pink tongue lolling out and convulsing with each note she struck.

I'd never know what she had been saying to me.

Not that I really cared past waking the next morning

How could I when I found that yellow-haired boy standing at Temari's sale booth, face in awe as he examined her countless selection of fresh fish. "Oh! Good morning, you slept so much last night I wasn't sure if you'd ever be getting up." My sister teased, probably just as shocked as I was at my extended amount of sleep.

I was something more of a cat-napper you see, one or two hours at night, two or so more towards the afternoon…

I would have replied with something, anything to show my sister I still have a special level of respect for her, shame I was too busy being floored by those blue eyes.

I've probably mentioned it plenty of times but they really were the absolute epitome of blue.

"Hmn."

He didn't buy anything, just gave my sister a much appreciated compliment on her wares before stalking away. I did not miss his hesitant footing or the way he glanced back at me with the eyes of a shy girl… Maybe that's why I went after him without sparing my sister a second glance.

"Hello." I managed, swallowing down a lump in my throat. His smile was splitting and I can't say I'd ever seen one quite like it ever before. Then again of course I hadn't, surely I'd remember it. "Isn't that a bit professional?" The boy teased, letting his endlessly deep gaze openly travel over me.

It gave me shudders.

"Is it?" And he laughed; a sound similar to waves crashing against a rocky shore. Everything about the young man spoke of a lifestyle led on a warm and welcoming beach, from his amber tan to his charm. Although small in stature there was not a thing fragile about his countenance; and so I surprised even myself.

"Would you like to join me at the pub?"

By the look in his eyes I can assume he had not at all been expecting me to extend the invite. "I… I'm not a fan of the sailor type." He admitted bashfully, scratching at his cheek with a nervous finger. "They have… big mouths." That was something I could wholly agree with, but something was off. "You aren't exactly the quiet type yourself."

This had him laughing again, I could get used to the sound but I already enjoyed the color rushing to his face. "True, but their big mouthed in a sort of… different, way." I was confused I admit, the way his sandals scraped at the sandy dock.

"Alright then."

Was that disappointment I just felt? Something like a twisting in my gut, I wasn't even sure why I had asked him in the first place let alone why I would feel scorned at his refusal. I started to walk away, contemplating what had just occurred when…

"Gaara, wait…"

Glancing back I saw the boy rush to me, the way my name sounded from his scratchy throat running up my spine.

"I'll go. It'll be fun, right?"

If I had to describe my encounters at the bar the word I would use would not be something similar to 'fun'. I didn't have the heart to correct him though once I saw the excitement in his eyes. It was like looking at a child on Christmas morning; one of those lovely ones where both parents are relatively sane and yet in the mind of the child, insane because they _insist_ on making coffee before letting anyone open any of the delicately wrapped gifts beneath the overly-adorned tree.

But he was not a child, even if he couldn't possibly be a day over eighteen.

"Perhaps I'm a bit late in asking, but what is your name?"

I sounded foolish at that point, realizing I probably should have asked before inviting him to spend time together. The blonde had my thoughts backwards and upside down, unable to pinpoint how I was feeling.

"Naruto Uzumaki, at your service."

He saluted, his expression implying he probably hardly took anything seriously in his life.

"And you already know mine somehow." It wasn't a question of how but Naruto took it as one.

"Your sister talks about you to her customers; she was mentioning to the fellow in front of me how in high school you intimidated opposing debaters into forgetting their entire arguments."

How many years ago had that been? I quit the debate team at the end of freshman year due to personal conflicting interests.

"I highly doubt I was the reason for their incompetence."

"No, I'm pretty sure you just proved her right."

I gave him a peculiar look, his footsteps never faltering as we marched on.

"Why is that?"

The look he gave me left me holding my breath.

"I feel _very_ intimidated."

I couldn't believe him with that toothy grin crawling across his face.

I thought for sure that it wasn't _him_ who was intimidated when he paused in front of the pub's door and watched me with expectant eyes. Like the fumbling fool I had been reduced to in his presence, I opened the door for the blonde and he graced me with another smile.

He handed them out like free samples in a supermarket.

"Gaara! Is this becoming a daily thing?" Shizune laughed, wiping down the bar. "Not that I mind a bit. I see you brought a friend." I nodded and sat down, Naruto taking a nervous seat beside me. "What for you… hon?" The brunette woman had her head tilted, eyeing my company with confusion.

"Good morning, not too early for a glass of wine I hope?"

"What kind?"

Naruto scrunched his face for a moment, his expressions always giving away exactly what he was thinking. "Something dark." Shizune nodded and slipped into the back room, leaving me to wonder why she hadn't carded the blonde.

There was no way he was twenty-one.

I didn't mention it because as usual, it was something that wasn't my business.

She brought him two wines, explaining he'd have to buy the whole bottle. The blonde fished for his wallet and picked the one he wanted, asking for two glasses.

Again the woman surprised me, setting both in front of him and not saying a word as Naruto filled one.

As he was pouring, he never took his eyes off her, almost daring the woman to object to him passing me the glass.

It was sweet on my lips.

The look Shizune gave was some sort of cross between 'don't do anything stupid' and 'I _will_ be telling your sister about this'.

So why had she even served us?

"This is amazing." Naruto gushed, swirling the warm liquid in his cup. "Is this place always so quiet?" Looking around I realized he was right, the usual groups of men from ages young to old were missing, leaving only the occasional alcoholic to wallow alone in a dark corner.

"No, this is unusually quiet; I guess it just worked out. No bellowing sailors to grate the nerves."

I downed the last of my wine and without asking, Naruto filled it right back up.

My stomach was already warm but his encouraging stare kept me sipping.

"Is this how you'd imagined it when you asked me to come here?"

If the blonde was anything it was blunt, searching my expression for disappointment. I don't know what he found because even I couldn't convey how I was feeling, I wouldn't be able to recognize it myself. "I didn't imagine anything." I confessed, turning on my stool to directly face him. For a few moments our eyes were locked, mine unsure of what was happening and his simply refusing to back down; it wasn't until Shizune cleared her throat that the two of us broke away.

"Can I get you boys anythin' else?" She stammered; pink dusting across her cheeks.

"We're fine." I replied, letting Naruto give the contented expressions. When the brunette was gone again, the mysterious boy laughed heartily. "Why is she so anxious?" He cooed, finishing his own second glass. "Maybe it's my dashing good looks."

I let the corner of my mouth rise, catching the man off guard.

By off guard I mean he choked just a bit on his sip, taking a minute to calm his breathing.

"I didn't know you could do that." He teased, filling up both of our glasses once more. I had never had so much alcohol at one time in my life, the feeling not unwelcome but certainly unusual. "Smile I mean, or sort of smile. It was kind of a pitiful attempt."

"Well don't expect much more."

I also blame the poison for my jabbering, in fact, I can't recall ever contributing so much to a conversation before.

The blonde glanced back and forth a bit, gauging how alone we really were before speaking up again. "I'm not really from around here so I was nervous I would find a way to make an ass of myself or worse, surround myself by asses." Naruto gave me that sheepish grin again and I downed the last of my third cup.

I think it was safe to say by then that I was tipsy.

"I figured you couldn't be from around here." I added, resting an elbow on the bar. "Do I stand out that much?" He chuckled; staring at the last of the wine nestled in the bottle.

"Yes."

I didn't mean it in a negative way though I'm not even sure how he took it. It just seemed that amusement was never absent in those brilliant blue eyes.

The boy who appeared from nowhere, tangled in a fishing net and calling out to me like life had settled into place in that moment…

I was beginning to think I'd gone insane.

He was like a mermaid, climbing out of the ocean and hunting me, luring me right in.

Then I knew I was drunk because suddenly the thought of the waif being a sea fairy wasn't so foreign to me.

Hell, the way that stare made time stand still, that must have been what everyone had meant in their (failed) attempts to describe the beasts.

"Where're you staying?" I was trying to keep the conversation going, anything to avoid just silently staring at each other and taking our finals sips of the wine.

I think ultimately I just sounded creepy…

If anything ever affected Naruto, he sure didn't show it, and from my short experience with the boy, he certainly wore his emotions on his sleeve. This had led me to conclude that nothing affected him, _ever_.

"Just past the north end of Konoha; over the huge rocks." He answered seamlessly, pouting with a horridly pained expression at the now empty wine bottle.

The more I thought about it, I just couldn't recall having ever seen any houses, hotels, or apartments beyond those rocks. Then again after all these years I never quite took the time to climb over them and look.

Somehow in my barely inebriated state my gaze found him again, openly staring at his swim trunks and logo-splattered tourist shirt. Clothes you could buy in the gift shop not two doors down from where we were.

My gaze traveled up to his face, acknowledging his soft jaw line and the three thin scars that lined each side of his face.

They looked like whiskers; I wondered how I hadn't noticed before but soon realized that I was the closest I'd been to him since we'd met.

"Are you drunk, Gaara?" He teased, reaching out and poking a finger into my cheek. I retracted at the touch, turning to look anywhere but at him.

"No, just a tad woozy." The boy stood, stretching his arms and letting out a final string of snickers.

"It looks like we're done here then."

I nodded dumbly and stood, fishing through my pockets for change to tip my old acquaintance.

She didn't even offer her usual farewell, just watched silently as we walked out of the pub.

"It was fun, maybe we should do something again sometime." Naruto bleated, turning to head north through the docks.

"Bye Gaara."

"Hmn."

I watched him walk away for the second time, unable to shake the cold chill from my spine or the spike of loneliness that seemed to overwhelm me.

In a buzzed state, I slowly made my way to 'Tackle and Things', trying to shake the unwelcome feeling.

I made a mental note never to drink again, even if was just wine.

Now, let me explain that I have never been fond of any situation in which a person raises their voice in an uncouth manor. Now, let me explain that the dismay I felt for such situations had multiplied through the roof while under the influence of alcohol. So you could only imagine how I felt upon walking into 'Tackle and Things' to hear Tsunade's ear splitting griping.

"All these damn sailors having their britches in a bunch with this damn talk of sirens roaming about!" With her complaints came the sound of various items being slammed to the ground in small and bursting fits of rage. I think I may have been more startled if I weren't so… relaxed.

"Aren't you a firm believer in mermaids?"

She looked at me like I'd grown a second head, can't say I blame her either, I was acting entirely out of character.

I hiccupped and grabbed a handful of black licorice to toss on the counter.

"Of course I believe in them brat but I don't need any of that talk frightening my customers away." She rang up my licorice and cussed beneath her breath, whoever had just been in before me really managed to rile the woman up.

I had a hunch it had been Jiraiya himself.

"So kiddo, you considering picking up that saddle yet? I'll drop the price to thirty-two bucks. That's a steal you know." I twitched my lips and stared up at the obtrusive object. Nobody around here needed a horse saddle, that's why that old tawny thing had been collecting dust for the past several years.

All along the edge were little bedazzled plastic diamonds; the saddle had belonged to someone eccentric at one point, now it just glittered under the stores florescent lighting.

"I'll have to decline."

I'm fairly certain I've said that to her every time I'd been in the shop since I was old enough to have my own wallet full of my own cash.

She knew it too, her bartering attempts had begun the first time she'd seen me draw out the now old and tattered thing.

Clever woman.

"Well then get out of my store, red."

I took my licorice and stumbled out, one hand on a rail and knees rickety.

I am not sure how I got to the living room but the couch was soft and didn't lie beyond the horror that was a staircase.

I didn't fall asleep, after the extended rest the night before it was no surprise.

So I just laid there with my eyelids heavy, thinking about mermaids and Naruto…

Whom I'd found naked in the ocean.

I repeat; I had every intention at that moment to never drink again.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Wow, thank you all for your super sweet reviews! I originally planned to update this once a week or so, but I can't help it! If I have the next chapter ready and you want it from me, I shall deliver! O **

**Also to those who have inquired about GaaNaru or NaruGaa, this story, like all of my other stories, is GaaNaru.**

**Gaara is a lovely top! To those whom it does not matter, enjoy! And please let me know what you think, I love to hear from all of you.**

One of the many things I never learned to like was boats; quite comical for living on a dock. The way they rocked like an old crib in the wind was unsettling at the least, let alone any inclinations to sea sickness.

Luckily, this was something I had not experienced in roundabout a decade.

That day might have been a lovely day… that is, if the air weren't so sticky and the fact that I was on board one of the miserable vessels, rocking about as if nobody's business. Maybe it would have been lovely if the company were better, not just that old bat of a sailor, Jiraiya.

But maybe it wasn't the company I was in that irked me so much as the lack of.

As one prone to solitude, I found my thoughts (of a certain blonde with oceanic eyes) unnerving; a craving for companionship like nothing I'd felt in a long while. In the past I would have griped about loading a boat, each water-logged step sent bullets through my spine as the weight of the many crates I lugged back and forth took a toll on the foundation.

Every few weeks or so, when the old man was not slumming around the pub I would lend his (as he never seems to let me forget) weary bones a hand. I did not mind the tedious pacing, the straining arms, or his shouts of encouragement that sounded more like threats…

I just think there should be a minimum requirement for how much solid mass should stand between someone and the big blue.

"Ay! Best grab that candlestick!" Jiraiya bellowed heartily, my eyes drifting to where the lone copper piece lay forgotten. With patches of mossy green and a style that hadn't been _in_ style for many a century, I could only assume it had been purchased at Tackle and Things for a less-than-reasonable price.

It was cold in my hands, as if it'd been left alone to collect dust.

"It's not safe to have anythin' shiny aboard with the sea devils about."

The way he spoke was not in the braggart voice of a drunken Scot so much as a reminder to himself. The way his voice rang softly, it was almost easy to believe we were having a real conversation, no matter how one-sided it may be.

"I swear, even if it's the cheapest piece of plastic you'd ever seen, if it gleams, they'll want it and if you're near it, well, let's just say you don't want to be." I gave a soft grunt, just to let him know that I was listening.

I would not patronize him nor would I raise any challenge to what he said. I wasn't like those other men he found himself surrounded by and I'm sure the coot knew it. So he just kept speaking and I just went on listening, breaking out the mop and bucket.

"They don't just pick off people; don't know what ye've heard but it doesn't work that way. They choose a victim." Two fingers went to his eyes before drawing across to me. "A fellow that _compliments_ them. They tease and they coo at 'em until the poor sod just waltzes after 'em wherever they go."

If you've ever seen a soldier with his hat to his heart over a fallen comrade then you'd have a good idea of the look Jiraiya held in his softened gaze.

I felt like I'd been exposed to some secret, perhaps the one that made his shoulders seem so heavy to the outside world.

It was in that moment, watching each crease in his skin that it occurred to me how old he was.

"No meal is easier than one that follows you into the kitchen."

Just like that he closed up again, the look of a jolly fool back in place where it always was. "That's why it's just so damn easy to fall in love; there just ain't any accidents when it comes to sea devils. Like I said, they _choose_ you, so it's no wonder it feels like it's meant to be."

"And does it?"

If the man was startled by my tangible contribution to the topic he never showed it, just looked out at the waves while I scrubbed away at the deck.

"Whether the demon be a man or woman, no sailor would look down upon another for falling in love with the damned thing. It's an unspoken code, something that should not be detested but pitied…" I wondered what sailors he was referring to; none seemed to be too keen on his theories.

Although it did occur to me that not all were as willing to admit to such delusions as Jiraiya was.

"Just you wait boy, with sea devils about, people are gonna start disappearing…"

As ominous as it all was, from his steady voice to the whistles of the wind, I still could not deny that in a way, it was a lovely day.

I rinsed away the last of the muck from the deck; one thing you probably don't want to know is that nothing in the world eats away ocean scum like a bottle of Cola and a firm bristle mop.

Safe to say after learning sailor's secret I wasn't much of a dark soda drinker.

I much preferred cider.

With my work for the day done with and a lump of cash hot in my pocket, it felt like there was nothing else to do but wait for tomorrow.

I guess at some point every day felt that way, waiting for the next but not really anticipating anything. I wasn't one to stir things up, as anyone who knew me would mention, but sometimes even I had to step off course once in a while.

In this small society of mine one can easily assume I am fond of both the pub and the tackle shop, my visits to these places occurred near daily out of some unrecognized habit.

Today I sidestepped my pub and walked straight into 'The Leaf'; a homey café run by a robust redhead with a mean-streak for girls of the petite sort. She was bustling about with an outdated cash register, crunching numbers for this shack she put every ounce of pride in.

I seated myself along the wall, debating whether or not I could down half a fish sandwich. I wasn't much of an eater, though I ate more than slept. Ultimately I am sure I only ate for survival purposes, I could go on without the taste of the many wonderful things others tended to gorge on.

I can't even remember if I found pleasure in anything I did in those days, though if I did I don't miss it.

My waitress was there in an instant, coffee in hand that was hot like anything else worth drinking.

Sakura and I had acknowledged each other for the first time when her hair was still blonde and I held my ratty old bear in a desperate clutch. Since then she'd dyed it a pastel pink and managed to maintain the almost soothing color for a good many years.

She knew how I liked my coffee, hardly any sugar but a heaping of cream. The young woman had a bounce in her step as I placed my order, who knew what kept her excited through the days of waiting on people both polite and not-so-much.

Maybe the sweet hymn she sang under her breath as she scrubbed down each table contributed.

"Sakura…" The voice was that of the owner, her thick glasses slipping to the brim of her nose. "None of that, now." The hymn faded like a settling wind chime; the diner being engulfed in silence as a hot fish burger was brought my way, something like you could only get in the old stories of iron skillets.

"Thank you."

Sakura gave a lifted eyebrow and a smile, as if to say I was being far too formal… as if to say in a way she may have considered us friends.

That's the problem with the folk at the docks; they met someone and then assumed they had the right to _know_ them.

Maybe that's why I felt no urge to pry into Naruto's life; how long before I became another one of them? Old and telling dusty stories about a sailor who'd had more than his share to drink.

"Karin." I called out to the passing woman, her nerves in an obvious frenzy. "Why did you make her stop?" If I could describe the woman as anything other than a subtle lesbian, it was someone with an heir about them that things where always either going wrong or bound to soon enough.

"Pardon?"

"Her singing, why did she have to stop?"

Because of the generally frazzled nature of the woman, her suspicious glances back and forth did little to alarm me.

"Normally I wouldn't mind it, but sirens, they love a little song and the last thing I need is those sort hanging about my eatery."

With nothing more she was off, a notepad in hand and crunching numbers.

At this point I was convinced that the entire world had gone inexplicably mad.

Let me remind you that I have no qualms with the insane, the immoral, or the disturbed. The belief of those I found myself unwillingly surrounded by was not something I ever concerned myself with, let alone expressed any public dismay at.

This being something I'd felt my entire life, one can easily visualize the expression on my small family's faces at the dinner table when I asked them what their opinion was on this mermaid nonsense.

The fact that I'd asked in the first place was one riddle, my outright choice of description as _nonsense_ was another.

I think that was one of the earlier signs that I was quickly becoming involved in this scandal.

"Well… I never really thought about it." Temari pondered with her fork still hovering above her plate. "I hear a lot of stories everyday while selling. It's not like any one seems crazier than the other." Now that I thought about it, many times I had passed her shop there had been tales spreading around of anything from the great squid god of Cthulhu to Lochness sightings; I just never spared a thought before.

Maybe it was the unrealistic feel of the blonde's skin or the way his gaze welcomed me in with an invitational sweep… I just had the feeling if he and Jiraiya ever crossed paths, well, I'd have to stand between to the two.

I was positive that the coot would think the boy a _mermaid_ and have his try at slaying the beast, so to speak.

I just don't know why I thought that way.

"Don't listen to her Gaara." Kankuro piped up, his glass empty as usual and eyes unable to completely focus. "They're as real as you and I. Seen one before, a wicked little beast." The brunette man found the ceiling and watched it like a movie screen, somehow able to direct bites of rice to his mouth without once glancing at his plate. "He 'ad this wild tan, like he'd been laying on a beach his 'ol life and just drinkin' the sun. Little red stripes dripping down his eyes like poorly painted tears."

Temari rolled her eyes and spared our brother a smile that seemed more of a wince.

"I'm serious! I was out fishing farther than I'd usually ever been when this big creaky boat comes by. Looks like something shark hunters would 'av, I only really looked because I 'eard screaming, though it wasn't like 'ow normal people'd scream." Glass went up, nothing but the water from the melting ice meeting his lips. "He was pinned to the underside of the bow, mess of dark brown hair that 'ad been chopped off. I couldn't see for sure but he 'ad what looked like railroad spikes dug into his belly like one of those butterflies you'd see in a museum."

I was reminded in that moment that my brother belonged here by the ocean. Everyone that belonged here could make that same face, switch to that same voice, like something of a story teller.

I guess the ocean was just the place for a thousand unnecessary tales that everyone and no one wanted to hear.

"I swear then, he got silent, just looked at me from one hundred feet away and yet I could stare right into his eyes as if he were in front of me, tail long and red like a fat ol' apple you buy down south. Now he just stared for a bit and let me see him, all of him, some expression on his face that I can't describe."

I wondered if it was similar to the one he wore then.

"Let me tell you, if I could 'ave walked across that water and right up to him, I would 'ave, and when he realized that I couldn't, he went back to his writhin' and wailin'."

Temari had a look on her face like everything out of his mouth was bullshit; for once I wasn't able to completely agree with her.

"Was this while you were drunk?" She teased, trying to keep dinner light-hearted but it was an unnecessary question, the man was always drunk.

"Alcohol doesn't make you hallucinate you know." The man griped, loosing that edge of wonder in his expression.

"I'm just sayin' you may be exaggeratin' a bit."

"No, what you're sayin' is that I'm a dirty liar."

And it escalated.

I shot Shikamaru a glance, the man finishing his plate and getting comfortable in his seat, already sure that this conversation would go on for a while.

Another thing I never liked was controversy… Ironic seeing as I just served some up with dinner.

"You know that ain't what I mean." There's a sort of ring in her tone, Shikamaru used to tell me that it was something all women possessed but I'd only ever heard my sister use it.

Shikamaru said that's because I'd never been with a woman.

"But it is ain't it? Fisherman pin mermaids to the bows because it gets 'em screamin'. Nothing calls in schools of fat fish like one of their own wailing for help." My brother slammed his fork to the table, standing angrily and fetching his bottle of bourbon to fill his glass. Part of me knew he'd never stop loving the poison yet another part figured he went out of his way to drink it because he knew it made Temari angry.

I tried not to think about it as long as it never intervened with his ability to function.

"Now you're just being ridiculous! I knew you fishermen were crazy." She griped.

"If I recall, it was your ten year old ass that dragged mine to this rat-hole place and then back again every chance you got for the next fifteen years!" He growled.

_Slam_.

"So suddenly I'm the crazy one because I wanted to own a business? Me? Not all the fishermen here with their disregard-of-hygiene and lack-of-sobriety, God forbid _they're_ the ones with a bolt loose."

Let me tell you something about my brother in law. He was as brilliant as he was lazy, though I may have mentioned that already, ultimately he knew how to sooth a situation gone sour like no one I'd ever met before. Maybe that's why he was able to coincide with Temari on an emotional level like no man her age had been able to.

"Mermaids, or whatever people choose to call them…" The raven started, lighting up a cigarette and filling the room with the heavy taste of tobacco. "They've been a strong part of shoreline culture for centuries." I was inwardly pleased at the way my siblings retracted their claws, settling into their chairs as the sagacious yet younger man quickly took charge.

"It's a choice to believe in them, same as any religion. For people who do believe in them there is plenty of proof and for people who don't, well, there will never be enough." He took another deep inhale and let the smoke gather.

Just like that the household was back to the way it always had been.

I just sat there wondering how Shikamaru had quickly become the only one making any sense in my usually sensible household.

()()()()()

I don't know if I ever fell asleep that night.

One minute I watched the old swollen ceiling boards and the next I heard singing. It was not the desperate wailing of a wench with a missing jaw nor the screams of a striped boy pinned to a boat. It was almost like a lullaby or a pleading for happiness to come its way.

I'd never heard a song like it.

It lifted my eyelids and my body right out of bed, each sporadic whistle and chirp drifting through the open window. It was so coarse yet lovely, how could Kankuro sleep through the melody, his mouth hanging open and the usual empty whisky bottle in hand?

I almost wondered if I was dreaming; I almost wondered if anything I'd been experiencing lately was real at all.

Pulling over a musty shirt, I crept down the hall. It was not difficult getting out of the house, sometimes I worried that Kankuro would never wake up and as for the other two… I tried not to think about what they spent their nights doing.

Even with no windows the song still rang loudly, there were no words that I could make out but I knew what it was saying.

_I'm lonely._

_Come find me._

It was a feeling I'd known a long time ago; all alone on a playground while I swayed on a rusty swing, no parent to push me and too short for my legs to kick off for myself.

_Are you lonely? _

_Don't be, come find me._

Once upon a time, with my bear clutched in my arms, I asked my now deceased uncle why no one wanted to be around me. He had said I was just unlucky, that someone always has to be left behind for others to move forward.

He had no problem leaving me behind when he hung himself in my playroom.

_Please I'm so lonely._

"I hear you."

Did those words come from me?

Outside that door had been cold; everything in my world had always been so cold. His shadow rocking back and forth in the crack beneath the door, my breath clogged in the back of my throat.

I had opened the door and my mouth to scream but nothing came out.

Nothing ever really came out.

On the docks it was completely different; it was warm with sticky summer air and salt. In the swallowing night all I saw was his outline lounging against the railing, feet hanging over and dipping right into the oil black water.

How terrifying.

"It's funny, I was sort of thinking about you. Never would have guessed you'd show up."

Despite what he said, something in my gut knew that he had called me here and like the subservient individual that I tended to be, I followed.

"Sit with me?" He purred, the moon exposing from the clouds to light him up like a present under a tree, those round eyes brimming with kindness. I always thought him one that craved the company of others…

I was happy to oblige to a point.

"I'd prefer to stand."

The thought of letting my feet anywhere near that black pit was stomach churning,

"What's the matter, afraid of the water?"

The water that looked like boiling tar.

"With good reason." I murmured, recalling another one of my darker memories.

Naruto smiled at me like the world had found international peace; I can't even convince _myself_ that I didn't enjoy that smile just a bit. "You gonna share that story?" I thought back to all the people I was surrounded by and their similar love for storytelling.

I didn't want to be like them yet his eyes glittered and I felt… compelled…

"I've been coming to these docks since I was small, my father had several contracts with fishermen, they supplied him with crab and fish for his seafood franchise which has, since his death, been liquidated." I thought back on the zero dollars my father left his three children in his will and how the only reason we have a house at the moment is because Shikamaru had a bit in savings.

He didn't hesitate to pull every penny to give to his wife for her dream home.

He listened like nobody had, head tilted slightly and a look of genuine interest as I told him how I had leaned too far over the railing, falling forward and landing with a splash that echoed in my ears. Bobbing up I tried to scream, mouth open in a silent wail I threw out my arms but caught nothing.

And how there was no one there to catch me.

Floating in the murky water my small heart nearly stopped when I felt something long slide across my leg, cold and ominous. I told the blonde how I'd been convinced I was about to die, I told him how that brush of scales drove the voice from my mouth finally and then I told him how Yashamaru's, my uncle's, hand came from the sky and rescued me.

I did not mention that the reason my late uncle was no longer with us was due to suicide.

"Wow, I guess I can kind of see why you don't much like the water." There was a cross of amusement and empathy in that statement. "What do you think it may have been?" He stood up, eyes level with my nose yet pinned seemingly on my mouth. He was so close I'm sure I was holding my breath though I hardly noticed.

"I'd rather not know."

His laughter was a bell chiming in my ear; I hated and enjoyed it all the same.

I felt a smooth fingertip brush along my jaw line, his eyes focused on my mouth as I watched the sun rise from beyond the ocean over his shoulder.

From dark 'til the sea was cast in orange, it spoke for itself how long he stood there with his hands touching my face, exploring and curious. I wasn't sure what to make of any of it, not of the touches or the stares or how blue the sea looked when he stood in front of it.

"The storm must be over… isn't everything so blue?"

How could he have known? The young man wasn't even facing the ocean.

Then he let go of me, falling backwards and right into the blue water as if he belonged there.

"Are you crazy!? Give me your hand!" I shouted, yes, _shouted_, leaning over the rail and reaching out to the treading boy.

"Come in with me Gaara." He laughed, shaking his hair free from his face.

"Idiot." I whispered, "I already told you I can't."

Naruto went under for a moment, rising again for a deep breath and a fit of snickers at what must have been the look on my face.

I wonder if he thought the fear I felt was from the water itself. To be honest, it was more from him, floating in deep as if he were right where he belonged.

"I'm going home." I announced with a heavy exhale though I almost took it back when he looked at me with devastation.

"I'll be seeing you again won't I?" It was a hopeful statement and I nearly answered too quickly.

"If that's what you want."

By the smile I received, even my worst doubts could not convince me that Naruto was just another person aiming to leave me behind.

When I got home the house was as asleep as when I'd left it.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: You have all been so good to me! Please enjoy this next chapter, I meant to post it this morning but I was out of town. **

Naruto had been right that morning; every trace of the storm was gone and all the skies had to offer was azure brilliance.

I stood in front of Temari's booth with a look on my face that was supposed to be welcoming. My sister and her husband had recognized the potential the day brought and did not hesitate to leave me in charge of her booth while they stole off for a romantic evening.

I wonder when I became accustomed to the relationship the newlyweds shared.

Peddling fish, I recalled how my sister met what she referred to as her other half. It was a strange tale that most scowled at but still many claimed worth hearing.

I don't know if you've yet comprehended the extent of my brother-in-law's intellect but when he was only fourteen years old he was already a freshman in college. This is where he met my sister who was a senior at the time.

As lazy as the genius was and always had been, he put a good amount of effort into my sister.

You can imagine how she took it at first, blowing off his advances as nothing more than a child crush.

She never thought she'd hear from the boy again after she graduated a year later but she was obviously wrong. He visited her at the house, I still remember hearing the doorbell ring, something that rarely happened in what could only be described as our manor.

I'd peek out from behind a curtain, short and scrawny for my age, Shikamaru wasn't much better off. Every time he came around he held a single flower in his hand, never a bouquet and the flower was always different. My father didn't like it one bit but never really felt any threat from the young boy, though each time Temari took the flower her expression changed.

The first time it had been awkward.

The next there was a small smile…

Then a blush...

A peck on the cheek…

As hard as it is to believe, the boy came around until he turned into a man. I never spoke to him but he never failed to greet me when we passed each other in the urban streets. He was a good person and even my father, who at that point was in his deathbed, could see that.

He and Temari never dated yet no one was surprised when he showed up at the door at the age of nineteen on one knee with a small diamond ring in hand.

She said yes when he told her he'd been searching for the perfect one since the day he met her.

Our father never went to the wedding, not because he was physically or medically unable to. No one said anything but sometimes you can tell that Temari and Kankuro both think he regretted never chasing Shikamaru off the lawn.

One week after the small ceremony (that was lovely in its own way) the bitter man stopped breathing.

I can't recall if any of us had shed a tear.

It was difficult to believe that not more than a handful of months had passed since those days.

"I'll take these two please."

The soft voice was that of Ino, long locks pulled up into a high ponytail at the back of her head. At her side stood Tenten, a slightly older girl with two absurdly tight brown buns. Both girls I'd known a greater portion of my life, much like Sakura, though I found them far less appealing as company than the now pinkette.

I wrapped the fish with care, just as Temari had always instructed me. I do, however, wish I hadn't overheard the two women's conversation.

"Hinata's gone missing you hear?" The blonde whispered loudly, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I think she ran off with that cousin of hers. You know the one, he always came around and they always seemed so close. Had a _thing_ you know?"

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Like Hinata would have the guts to do something so scandalous. My concern is what if she's missin', you know, like _gone_." Ino shrugged and took the brown paper bag I offered her.

"Thanks sweet'um." To which I nodded.

They left in a mixture of giggles and worry, the disappearance of the girl with night-blue hair, news and yet no news at all. I recalled her, just like the others she'd lived in Konoha for years. Her father owned some franchise that spread so far out no one really knew what it was anymore.

She was always so quiet, no one would really bat an eye if she were missing; almost sad when you can't even leave a footprint in the society you'd lived in your whole life.

When we were young, her hair was shorter than her ears… very unusual for the vain little girls of the area with their pink ballet slippers and dreams of fame.

Yet here they still are as nameless as the day they were born.

Last time I saw the now young woman, her hair was long and full as if she too had someone worth impressing.

I just stood there and sold fish until most would be home in bed.

Dinner could have been heated up leftovers I suppose, with Temari and Shikamaru unlikely to be home before morning I was left to fend for myself.

I wasn't even going to try to find out where Kankurou had sauntered off to.

I found myself back at The Leaf, worn little menu in my hand. Karin was as high-strung as ever and instead of Sakura waiting the tables, Ino stood in her place. It was almost midnight and I guess I should be grateful they were still open, heating up a bowl of soup for me to try to finish.

Like Sakura, Ino had a look in her eyes that seemed to know I wouldn't get very far on it.

It tasted like something others might enjoy.

Once upon a time, I sat in a counselor's office because one of my teachers noticed I never ate my lunch. It was greasy and unappealing but apparently people notice if you never even attempt to buy it. I found out later that first came a phone call home, wondering if I needed financial assistance so I could have what they called a balanced hot meal. I also found out that my father told the school rather blatantly that I wasn't his problem, if I wasn't eating it was because I didn't feel like eating.

I think sometimes when people don't eat, it scares people. Me, no one paid enough attention to be scared, just to fuss.

After those meetings I would make the effort to buy my lunch and crush it up with a fork so it appeared I had been eating.

A complete waste of time.

A third through the bowl and I no longer felt a desire to eat; the feat may not sound all too impressive yet five years ago I wouldn't have even touched it.

It was raining the night Temari begged me to eat, her eyes swollen and leaking tears like she actually had something to worry about.

That night I ate half a grilled cheese sandwich, she only seemed to cry more when I'd finished.

One thing that every quaint eatery had in common with every quaint shop was a bell strung up at the door. It became a common background noise, meaning nothing to me while I drained the last of the broth from my bowl, leaving behind chunks of vegetables and chicken. This time when it rang I looked up, maybe because the sound jarred me out of reliving my horrible middle school years or maybe God was in need of a laugh.

Either way, in through that door came what I first recognized as a black fedora. Beneath it was even more black hair, making the satin white face it surrounded almost painful in contrast. He was not older than me but his eyes held no youth as they scanned the diner.

Behind him was what could have been a right doppelganger, the only difference being an extra foot of height and long hair pulled back at the nape of his neck. For some reason I thought back to every poorly advertised romance novel I'd ever seen my classmates burying their faces in and it left my stomach uneasy.

They were two sore thumbs in our homely town and I could say with confidence that I'd never seen anything quite like them before.

The taller one's eyes were red now that I think about it though I never let my stare linger.

I was prodding the chicken at the bottom of my bowl in distaste, trying to ignore the short raven approaching Ino with a piece of paper in hand, his lips moving in a practiced manner.

She shook her head slowly, a smile in perfect place.

He was the exact type of guy a girl dreamed of sweeping her off her feet.

I just kept eating and trying to make Temari proud.

"Excuse me sir."

Polite, cut like the finest Edam is the only way to describe that voice.

"Have you seen this fellow?"

And there was a picture of Naruto.

It was unmistakable; despite being taken from a very candid angle I knew for certain it was him. He was shirtless and chest deep in what could only be the ocean, hands up and clutching at a wooden pier.

Did the man hear my breath hitch?

"Sorry, can't say that I have."

I don't know why I couldn't look him in his coal black eyes.

He nodded, just staring down at my broth-less bowl of soup as if he had something to say about it. If he did he kept it to himself, tipping the front of his fedora and mentioning that he'd be around… as if to imply if I were to find the guy in the picture, it would be wise to find him and let him know.

I couldn't shake the memory of Sasori mentioning mermaid hunters to me, that there was good money to be made in the distribution of their parts.

Another side of me that was far colder in perspective recalled how sometimes, it was just plain personal.

A coffee was placed in front of me, one I hadn't ordered.

"Well he was a looker, wasn't he?" Ino laughed, the hot mug a courtesy I hadn't deserved. "Didn't much like those eyes, too cold." As if to exaggerate her point she shook her shoulders and let out a squeak. "I don't know why he's looking for that boy but if I do see him…" Two fingers went up to her mouth as she pretended to zip it shut. "I think I'll be keeping that to myself."

In this tight-knit community, people protected each other like some twisted definition of a family.

I nodded in agreement and took a tenuous sip.

As much as I detested this place I certainly felt less malice for it than any other town I'd ever been unfortunate enough to live in.

I may not be particular for Ino but sometimes she too, reminded me how humans are _supposed_ to act towards each other.

Her eyes were like the mug in my hands… warm.

()()()()()

"How did you meet this mermaid of yours?"

Jiraiya laughed heartily as he polished an old iron anchor. Another sleepless night had passed, one where I strangely strained my ears for the sound of singing in the distance.

All was silent save for Kankuro's habitual noises.

"Sea devil, boy, mermaids are for children's movies and horny castaways."

"Hmn."

In the past several hours I had transferred an outlandish number of boxes to and from a loading truck, the sun relentless on my now bare shoulders.

I had shed the dingy brown tank top sometime in the later morning when beads of sweat began to collect at my collar.

I may have looked the part; on board (unwillingly), out of breath and sweaty. Give me a tan and a beer; you could call me an outright sailor. I wonder if my father was laughing in that horrible way he once had, seeing his reclusive bastard roaming about in broad daylight.

Genuinely surprised his skin didn't burst into flames.

"It was in the eye of a hurricane…" He began, grin broad and stance broader. "One they say flooded every coast in the south. I had just come from waves a hundred feet tall; finally convinced I'd caught myself a break." I could tell by the inclination in his tone that his troubles had just begun.

"I had to check the sides of my boat, make sure everythin's runnin' tip top. So I look over the ledge and lo and behold, clung to the side like a barnacle was this mass of _hair_." Hands in the air like a wild man, I knew if he'd been facing me those eyes would be crazed. "But there was unmistakably a hand. Like the fool I am, I reached over and dragged it up, mess and all."

"Now boy, just imagine my surprise when attached to those hands was arms, reaching up to pull away long tendrils of hair. It all happened so fast, before a word got out of my mouth there was a face." As if I hadn't the slightest clue what a _face_ was he gestured to his own with an open palm. "White like pus, gold eyes like the devil himself." I wondered if he remembered that I already knew what the bloke looked like.

"He took a quick fancy to me; I never even saw the tail until I managed to pry his mouth off mine." I tried to imagine it, a creature like any Japanese horror film with a fish tail and a mouth latching onto the perverts own. I inwardly blanched.

"Never stopped chasin' me since, to this day he pokes his head out of the water and whistles at me when I'm not lookin', makin' everyone think I'm crazy." Jiraiya rolled his eyes and went back to polishing. "I know what happened that day and I know I've seen him ever since. It's too late once you've met 'em, you'll never forget their name."

"What is his name?"

I asked nonchalantly, unaware of the stress the old man got from saying that name.

"Orochimaru."

Although there was absolutely no rational connection between the two names, I couldn't stop inwardly comparing the man's disdain to the name that had been floating around my mind recently.

They really were nothing alike…

I forced my mind back to my temporary boss.

"No one blames you for not forgetting."

Sentiment had never been something I understood but by the relaxing of his shoulders I was sure that was what he'd needed to hear.

I wondered how I'd managed to grow fond of that batty fisherman.

Walking home that evening was just as rickety as any other. Lately I'd been thinking of the past, of how overly fond my uncle had been of my mother, the one that loved me despite the doctors telling her she would not survive my birth.

Both he and my father had begged her to terminate me.

I guess somewhere in the bottom of her heart she had to give me the opportunity to walk these docks, to clean them and complain about them and pull mysterious strangers out from the sea.

Or maybe she thought I would become some brilliant scientist who cured the incurable, discovered the undiscovered, or imagined the unimaginable…

Was disappointment heavy in her stomach?

"Gaara!"

Had there been any in mine, it vanished at the call.

Naruto's voice had become inadvertently easy to recognize, its horrid gruffness brimming with unnecessary attitude… a voice that couldn't belong to anyone else.

I never even got a reply out before he was burying his hand into my arm, looking over his shoulder with an expression of great concern. I couldn't not notice those two white teeth worrying away at his lower lip, the way it quivered as if cold.

"I want to go in here!" He announced loudly, dragging me (still shirtless I might add) right into Tackle and Things. A chiming bell, a curt hello that froze midair as Tsunade looked me over twice for good measure.

"Hun, we don't have a sign to say otherwise but I assumed most people would figure they'd need a shirt to be in here." I wanted that amused expression of hers gone just like I wanted Naruto's skin to keep touching me.

I got neither, he just let go and hurried further down the aisle with me following (against my better judgment).

When Naruto found a display that was taller than him, the blonde made haste in settling himself behind it, reaching out to pull me right along. I'd never been so close to another person, pressed together he held a finger up to his mouth to silence me though I hadn't spoken a word since he appeared.

I wasn't an idiot, we were obviously hiding.

Peeking through a slit in the cardboard, the door chimed once more and in walked the two men wearing fedoras, looking as business orientated and foreign as ever.

Sometime during this episode I had shielded what I could of the blonde's body with my own, his warm face resting almost soundly against my shoulder.

If that man hadn't been there I might have enjoyed it.

"Excuse me Ma'am."

Out came that little photo, Tsunade taking it when he clearly only wished for her to look. He asked about him, about Naruto, as if he'd asked a thousand times; like Ino, Tsunade shook her head and sent him on his way.

I never heard the bell that signaled his departure; maybe that was because I caught a waft of the sweet smell of the ocean that clung to Naruto like a silk sheet. I'd never enjoyed it so much before, did he notice me inhaling like I'd never known air in my life?

"I was wondering why you'd be in such a hurry you'd forget 'alf your clothes, you boys need to try to stay out of trouble." Tsunade's voice rang out, the odd young man and I separating slowly to reveal ourselves. "Shame, seemed like a nice couple, sold 'em both those Fedoras a few days ago, gave them a great price."

Naruto was already smiling like he always did. "That damned Sasuke, I wish he'd give me at least a few weeks to enjoy myself before he comes barging in and hunting me down." I swallowed at his terminology though tried to remind myself it was just that.

Terminology.

"I just feel bad for his brother, always getting his ass dragged around by that sod." The blonde brushed his hair free from his face, taking a moment to openly stare at my exposed chest.

"They were asking about you, at the diner the other night." I admitted, finally accepting the fact that I had somehow turned into a prying person.

"Just send him on his way; I have no business with that boy." He crossed his arms, looking away with a hint of pink dusting those cheeks.

We were walking the aisles quietly after that, picking up odds and ends and commenting (well, he had) on the more unusual pieces. It was a silence I was more than comfortable in yet each time it dragged on too long the man would burst into rambles.

It was no secret that he couldn't keep his mouth shut for extended periods of time.

"I've never seen anything over the rocks before."

My statement must have caught him off guard because he dropped a rubber ball with what appeared to be a tooth mark in it.

"Oh yeah, I'm staying just past those rocks." I already knew that much, tell me more I willed. "I don't live there obviously, I'm a traveler, always have been."

Now that was news though it explained a great deal of his sudden appearance.

Part of me felt a twinge of pain that it foreshadowed a just-as-swift departure.

"I suppose what I am really asking…" I started, locking his gaze in a way that slowed my breath. "Why haven't I ever seen any houses past there? Where exactly are you staying?" And it was out in the open, something that had been bothering me like a shard of glass in my foot.

As difficult as it was for me to socialize myself enough to even ask, Naruto did nothing but laugh in response; that same laugh that sent goose-flesh across my arms and the back of my neck.

It was hardly fair.

Never did an answer come; he only waved around an old book that looked like it'd been fished right from the bottom of the ocean before running off to pay the lady.

I came to an uncertain realization that I'd pried just a bit too far and returned to scanning the shelves, hoping for what it's worth that I hadn't made the blonde uncomfortable in any way.

There were many things on my mind while browsing those pointless shelves. Often it was the slight curiosity of where such unusual and arbitrary items came from in the first place, others it was how the blonde had managed to get into an argument with Tsunade about the world not accepting sand dollars as currency, why call them dollars to begin with then?

There was also the now named fedora man, Sasuke, not to mention my ever growing suspicion that if mermaids did in fact, exist, the blonde was surely one of them.

As crazy as it all sounded he brought the accusations upon himself.

Sand dollars… _really_?

Eventually I came to the realization that there was no nick-knack for me today and I would have to leave empty handed.

I was and was not surprised at the same time that Naruto was still by the counter, waiting for me to finish up.

"Twenty-five, I won't take a penny less!"

Tsunade bellowed, hand slamming down in a way that intimidated most. Not Naruto, he only furled his lip a bit more and stood on his toes to gain leverage as he shouted back. "That is an unfair price! This is a dock in case you haven't noticed. Who in their right mind would need a saddle!? Fifteen tops!"

Was he bargaining for the saddle?

I blinked a couple of times to try to sort out the scene before me.

Naruto walked out of that store with a saddle in hand, purchased for a measly eighteen bucks. Probably one of the greatest deals anyone had ever gotten on such a piece, sparkling with its many rhinestones.

How had life become so odd practically overnight?

"Are you coming?"

I was sure that he already knew I would.

And so I did.

Scrambling over the rocks was not difficult, nor was it the simplest of tasks. I simply took each step he did, found each foothold and crevice, at some point the ascent becoming more of an outright climb than a trudge. I wonder if any had seen us scamper away, the blonde lugging what couldn't be less than twenty-five pounds of saddle over his shoulder.

"Almost there Gaara!" He announced with the expression of a pirate who just found the island where treasure was said to have been buried.

It was almost like we were out adventuring together and I was a bit more than okay with that.

Slightly out of breath, hands shaky… I actually enjoyed it.

Finally the top of the rocks was upon us and as I looked down at the other side I saw no houses, no apartments or buildings of any sort.

What I saw was far more stunning.

Like a half moon the rocks curved around a circle of water that was so blue and so clear I could see the shadows of the schools of fish lurking within it.

It looked like something of a paradise, the light beating down just right as if it were the only spot in the world that truly ever knew sun.

It was not the grey waters of the beaches I often walked with my siblings as a child, it was not the muggy air of those docks not one hundred yards behind us.

In that moment I understood that peace did exist and maybe, just maybe, I experienced it.

Never had I seen water so perfectly still.

Naruto was down in a flash, descending with ease as if he'd done it hundreds of times, who knew he just may have. I was behind him at a much slower pace, careful with my footing.

What I couldn't see from the top of the rocks was a boat.

Or once a long long time ago, it had been a boat.

Now it was just the ghost of one, rotten in many places and half submersed into the sea.

Once a sailor must have loved the old thing, now it lay forgotten, bobbing about in paradise and tied to a stone bursting from the sand, taller than I could reach.

The blonde then continued to catch me off guard by making a leap from where he stood onto the rotten thing. Three feet was not a very long jump but his landing let out a creak in the worn wood and I was almost certain he'd be underwater in a matter of moments.

"Come on, I want to show you inside." He bellowed, waving like a manic and hopping in excitement.

"Please don't hop on that thing." I managed, saying a prayer and taking a leap.

Beneath my feet the planks cried out but held strong, something I was incredibly grateful for.

I had no intentions of being in the ocean again anytime soon.

"Gaaraaaaa." He whined, lower lip jutted out slightly. "_inside._" I shuttered, ducking through the busted out doorway.

If he was a mermaid I think that all he'd need to do is show that face and I'd follow him into the sea.

The realization was terrifying.

Below deck were two floors but half of the upper one was missing so you could jump down to the lower if you wanted, probably shouldn't though because it was flooded out, a gaping hole on the underside.

On that first floor (well, half of a floor) was an old travel bag and a pile of blankets that looked to be collected over the years.

I felt instantly staggered when I realized it.

Naruto was sleeping here.

Beside the blankets was a tall stack of wooden planks, carefully put together like a puzzle. The blonde (while whistling cheerfully) placed the saddle on top, jumping up and sitting on it sideways.

"See? Instant chair!"

"You've got to be fucking joking."

Was that my voice? It had to be, I was the only other one there. When had I started speaking without having to make myself?

"What? I think it's a badass chair." He shifted a bit, as if that would somehow convince me he was comfortable.

"You're staying _here_, in a rotten boat in the middle of fucking paradise."

He raised an eyebrow, glancing about. "Well it's not that awful and this cove isn't exactly paradise but to each his own right?"

"It's a rotten boat." I repeated, as if it would eventually get through his thick skull if I said it enough times.

"I've slept in worse. The upper level is dry and I got all those awesome blankets from the thrift just off the docks."

Burying my face in my hand I chastised myself for letting him drag me here. Ignorance is bliss after all and I wasn't sure I'd ever be okay again knowing he was sleeping just one badly timed roll away from a watery grave.

Or maybe mermaids just couldn't stand being away from water for long periods of time.

"I've been through every major city from the south up, slept in alleys, in old hotels, bus stations."

He listed these things as if a part of him were proud of his resilience.

Either way I could not help but be miffed; somewhere amongst the creaking floor and the occasional sway of the ocean I knew such a place had to be dreadfully _lonely_.

"Why are you here?" I finally asked, catching him midsentence of some unimaginable place with friendly hookers.

"I just said it's really not that bad, I stay dry."

"No… Why did you choose to stay in this place? Not this boat but in Konoha. It sounds to me like you're used to traveling the much more glamorous of our country. Why Konoha?"

I had to know the answer, just like I had to know where he was staying or why Sasuke was following him.

He was the first person I ever _had_ to know anything about.

"I like the company."

At the time the meaning behind those words had gone over my head.

Let me tell you something about that boat. Although eerie at first glance it was impossible to ignore the hominess Naruto swept it up in, the way he curled up on the floorboards and patted beside him for me to sit down.

I obliged, breath hitching at the way he shuffled closer.

We spent a good deal of time watching the water, him mentioning how the occasional fish swam up through the hole in the underside of the boat and me listening.

Soon enough there were several, silver and beautiful in the crystal blue.

It was like a pond, perfect and pretty the way it glittered beneath the sun that broke through several gaps in the roofing.

Even the ocean couldn't look menacing in that moment.

They scrambled around like flies in an overturned cup, back and forth, tails sparkling like stars in a muggy night.

There, yet not something that made your day any better.

"Pretty, aren't they?" He hummed, dipping a gentle hand in the water; the fish not phased the slightest at his presence. They only began to circle, finally forming some sort of unity amongst the bedlam. He calmed them; each knuckle-brush against the creatures seemed well-practiced and almost habitual.

Like they knew that he belonged.

I wondered at that time what it must feel like to belong somewhere.

"Something like that." I murmured, watching the dance with mild fascination.

He laughed, boisterous and ongoing like many laughs I dislike.

Not his, his was fine as it shook the wood beneath us.

"Does anything amaze you?" He managed, biting out words between each bout of chuckles. I thought on the question, likely rhetorical yet it bothered me. Was there anything that could genuinely stun me? Maybe the way people believed in fairytales about half human half fish creatures roaming about.

A fish gave what could only be a sort of kiss to those exposed knuckles; it was breath taking.

Or maybe it was just how they were able to create a community that focused on each other more so than themselves.

I think it was safe to assume that the way his ocean blue eyes lit up amazed me.

"Some things do."

If he ever got tired of my short and curt answers he never mentioned it, nor did he say anything when he reached out to take one of my hands in an unrelenting grip.

"This will."

Like any suicide he plunged my hand into the water, frigid yet welcoming as it swallowed up to my wrist. In an instant the fish scattered, looking as confused and alert as a fish could.

Let me mention that us sitting there, hands in the water while his never released mine, that was a moment that began to mean something to me.

I think I knew right away too, maybe that's why my chest clenched.

Finally after what felt like an eternity of nothing but the sound of our heaving, they came back. Slowly at first, interested but not excited… and then one touched me, slid its slender body across my palm.

It felt like a pearl.

Moving like it wanted to be caressed, like something more than what Kankuro swept up in his nets and gutted without a second thought.

If I could feel bad for the bastards I would.

The beasts were cold and smooth yet very much alive.

Nothing like they felt when we sold them at the booth.

"So, Gaara." The way he said it reminded me of someone trying to force a conversation.

My lips twitched, he just couldn't let the silence grow too heavy and I somehow had become okay with it.

"Why the uhh… eyebrows?" I'd never seen him bashful or anything of the like; Naruto was just someone who seemed to speak exactly what he thought exactly when he thought it.

It was comical how now he chose to be his idea of polite.

It probably isn't something I've mentioned, I never spend too much time in the mirror focusing on the traits I don't care about having.

Things like my lack of eyebrows or large kanji tattoo covering half my forehead and a portion of my eye, well, they were just something I had.

Not worth mentioning.

"I was six years old." I began, realizing this would take a far greater amount of words than I was used to offering. "Someone dear to me, or that I thought of as dear to me…" I never felt sadness before, just a wave of things I never understood, but the way he focused on me, hands lax in the waves, I felt…

Solemn.

"Someone took their life." Eyes widened, as I expected they would. "I didn't handle it well, at least as far as my sister remembers." To be honest there was a year gap in which I can't recall a thing… just the shadow beneath the door swaying back and forth…

"So I freaked I guess, plucked each hair out… eyelashes too."

A breeze filtered through the boat, sending his hair into turmoil, something akin to the look in his gaze.

"After a while it just stopped growing back."

I never meant to make him anything; not angry or desperate or above all devastated, he just seemed to become so too quickly to register.

I hadn't realized until his grip on my hand became unbearably tight.

"That was… unexpected." He tried to sound nonchalant, his grinding teeth fooling no one.

"Like many things I guess." I whispered.

Then I saw a fish unlike the others, something slicker with an unrealistic confidence.

One glittering fin dead center its back.

That's when my hand was abruptly yanked free, splashing the frosty liquid every which way.

"You don't want to touch those." Naruto warned, nose wrinkling at the sight of the fish that sent the others drifting away. "Their called Hardheads, that spine on their back…" He pointed to the fin I had momentarily admired. "Get stung by one of those and you'd rather be dead."

I watched it for a while, memorizing each feature carefully for future reference.

"There are too many dangerous things in the water." I whispered, looking up at the light that streamed through the roof cracks. Naruto only laughed at me like he seemed to love to, leaving me shaken inside.

"That's the fun part."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Chapter six already? Okay whatever you say! Thanks for the love and I hope you enjoy! **

It became a new sort of habit, going into Tackle and Things with Naruto. For three days after discovering his humble abode (if one could call it that) the two of us seemed to find each other quite often. Fleeting run-ins and the occasional, shall I admit, scheduled moment together…

I just felt so out of touch with the 'me' of last year or the year before and most definitely from my childhood. I found myself being in constant _craving_ of company. Not that of the old man or the many sweet women that waited tables or bars…

I only wanted to see one person.

Also, I should catch you up on the fact that in these last three days I have come to the absolute conclusion that Naruto is a mermaid, which made it both unusual and understandable that I sought him out each day.

I think realized it that afternoon in the boat, watching him and how right he was floating about in the ocean.

He could not be any normal person; he had no desire for stability, schedule, or even a roof above his head. Hell, the blonde was even iffy about a floor beneath his feet, admitting on one of our trips to the old tackle shop that water made him feel much _safer_, that floors just made him feel like there was nowhere to go when things got bad.

Today we were talking to Tsunade, more so he was talking and I was listening, and I've come to a second conclusion that was as equally baffling as my first.

I was attracted to him.

The blonde who waved a gold gypsy coin bracelet through the air manically so he could hear it chime…

Things had definitely changed seemingly overnight.

Despite the sound he was making impulsively I think what he liked most about it was the way it gleamed when the sun hit each coin just right.

He did have a desire for pretty little useless things… shouldn't mermaids try to be more subtle?

"You ready?" He chirped, receiving his change from the blonde woman.

"Hmn."

"Bye boys, come back tomorrow ya hear?" Tsunade called after us, earning a wave from my peculiar friend.

Friend…

The word didn't seem like enough to describe what we had fallen into.

Outside the sun was hot and the ocean grey, nothing but the sound of gulls over the rocky hills.

An isolation that I never appreciated before that moment, frozen in place by the way Naruto smiled at me.

"Come to my house for dinner tonight." As impulsive as it was it hadn't been a question. I genuinely wanted him at my house, maybe to prove that he was real and not just a manifestation of my imagination, maybe I just thought he'd like a home cooked meal in a place that felt like home.

Well, I'd never felt it but maybe he could… in fact, maybe he could make me feel it too.

"Okay, you sure your siblings won't mind?" Such a look of dejection, as if he'd never been welcomed into a house before.

I wanted to know why.

"Don't worry on it." I whispered, realizing that never before in my life had I had a guest for dinner.

Concerned teachers didn't count.

When we went our separate ways it was with the promise of seeing each other that night, just after the sun set. Perhaps introducing the maybe-mermaid to my family was not a good idea, judging by the stories of danger and bloodlust that seemed to follow them wherever their stories were told.

I could have _possibly_ just endangered the only people who stayed by my side through the awkward and the horrible years.

With Naruto out of sight I turned quickly, deciding my sister deserved fair warning that we would be having a guest tonight.

Perhaps I should have asked her before inviting him.

()()()()()()

If I could describe the expression on the faces in the kitchen it would have been a cross between bewilderment and possible glee.

Well, _especially_ Temari.

Now, _Temari_ , she was positively bouncing across the kitchen, pots and skillets strewn everywhere in an attempt at what she claimed was a gourmet meal.

It smelled like the same mediocrity she made every other night, just messier.

Then again, I never much liked food.

"Are you really wearing _that_?" She blanched, Kankuro stopping to sniff his shirt.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Kankuro! Can't you at least dress nice? Gaara is having a _friend_ over!" I felt my forehead furrow; she'd certainly said that with conviction. She may have met Naruto once before but she met a great many people, it was doubtful my sister would remember the man.

Would she be… disappointed? Waiting around for nearly twenty-one years for me to make a friend of sorts; surely having given up hope on me bringing home a woman.

I felt my pulse accelerate abnormally, the thought of her knowing that I felt a strange attraction to the blonde… frightening.

What if… what if the only people I'd ever had couldn't accept it… whatever it was.

When a rough knock thudded through the house, I experienced a fear like nothing else, Temari rushing to answer the door.

I could not see the expression on her face when Naruto was revealed, smiling and waving a flower in her direction.

"Hello Miss, it's been a while." He spoke smoothly, letting her accept the small but gracious gift. Then I heard her giggle and I knew the world must have started to rotate backwards.

Temari did not _giggle_.

I was tempted to ask Shikamaru to control his woman, that is, if she wouldn't shatter my jaw for opening my mouth.

I also wondered if him standing there with that flower reminded her of Shikamaru.

"You must be Naruto then! I remember those pretty blue eyes."

I'm fairly certain that Kankuro, Shikamaru, and I all simultaneously blanched.

"I'm flattered; really, it's very nice to formally meet you." And then they were shaking hands, something that my sister ended quickly by pulling him into a hug.

"You're much too stiff, come in and meet my husband." There was a special pride she had when referring to the man in such a way.

"Shikamaru." He spoke simply; giving a firm shake to Naruto's outstretched hand. This only seemed to make the boys smile twice as wide, twice as genuine.

"Hello, name's Kankuro, 'ave a seat wherever you like." My brother gestured, obviously trying to be civil and appear sober.

I saw the half empty whiskey bottle floating around the other room; he was fooling no one, except maybe the smiling blonde that forced him into a handshake.

With the ice completely shattered I was finally able to let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding, letting the man take my sleeve and drag me into the dining room with him.

"Where should we sit?" He whispered, observing the five set places with endearment. "I've never settled down for a family dinner before." And just like that I got a small insight to what the life of a mermaid was like…

Or maybe just a lonely boy.

I wish I could explain more thoroughly what happened during that dinner, something that started with Naruto ultimately gushing about how wonderful Temari's cooking was and how he hadn't had a home cooked meal anything like it ever before.

Then there were instances where I would pipe up, earning glances from everyone save for Naruto who by now was very used to my speaking and in fact, encouraged it. I think the talking is what made them start paying more attention to the details, things like me sweeping across the table to help the blonde cut his steak.

Mermaids couldn't have had steak; it would explain why he stabbed it with his fork and attempted to take bites off it.

He was really building a case against himself, though with the sound of his upbringing it wouldn't be insane to assume he simply didn't have nice things often.

Things I never thought were odd when alone together suddenly became… personal in the eyes of my family. From thumbing a spot of sauce free from his lip to god forbid _letting_ the blonde tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear…

Temari stopped eating at some point and just _stared_, Kankuro on the other hand, refused to look up from his plate.

Surprisingly, it was Shikamaru who took the most shining to the blonde, though maybe having something to do with the fact that they were the same age.

Two hours of mindless conversations, bouts of laughter, and awkwardly endearing behavior on my part later the five of us were up and about, collecting dishes and tidying up.

Naruto _insisted_ upon helping Temari load the dishwasher before he left, doing one final daring act as I saw him to the door.

Reaching up with absurd confidence he did what none had done since before my psychotic preteen years.

He hugged me.

I couldn't force myself to do any more than set my hands on his waist, his grip around my neck near deadly.

"Thank you for having me over." He chimed to the three dumbstruck individuals behind me.

"An… Anytime hon." Temari stuttered, waving with a shaky hand.

I watched him disappear into the night; the same way he did every day, and realized that having him over wasn't a complete disaster.

At least I thought so until the door was shut, giving Kankuro all the opportunity he needed to finally speak up.

"What the _'ell_ was that!?" He yelled, something that although he did often, caught me off guard.

I can't recall it ever being me that his shouts were directed at.

"Kankuro!" Temari shouted back, pinning him with a glare akin to hell itself.

"Who knew you of all people would turn out _queer_?"

And there it was, laid out for everyone to see… mainly myself.

I'd never hated a silence so much.

"Shut up." Temari hissed, not even bothering to raise her voice anymore.

"A poof."

"Kankuro…"

"A _fag_."

_A shatter_, Temari had thrown his half empty bottle of whiskey to the floor, leaving it in a thousand little pieces.

"What the hell!?" Kankuro shouted, giving our sister eyes of disgust though nothing as harsh as the one he then sent me.

"You're okay with this!?"

"I am more than okay, can't you see that for _once_ your brother seems somewhat happy or are you actually that blind?" Her tone was something awful. "Or maybe you're just a drunk _fuck_."

Again with the horrid silence, Shikamaru having buried his face into his hand early on.

I felt so lost, like I should have expected things to go bad; they usually did.

Then I felt a warm hand on my arm, that of Shikamaru. When had I begun to hang my head in shame?

"Gaara…" His voice dry and eyes pinned on his wife and my brother who stood ready to tear each other's throats apart. "He was very nice."

I could see Kankuro take the inhale for his next bout of profanities but I stopped him early on.

In fact, he and Temari both froze to watch me as I spoke, awe in their gaze.

"Yeah, he is isn't he?"

I wasn't familiar with the way it felt but I'm sure by the looks on their faces I must have been smiling.

Kankuros reaction was somewhere deep down, anticipated, but the way both Shikamaru and Temari accepted him with (metaphorically on Shikamaru's part) open arms, that was enough to get me thinking.

Maybe it was okay to start thinking of him as something more than a maybe-mermaid; maybe I could start thinking of him as someone I could find potential solstice in…

Something everyone around me had never had the guts to say I needed.

Except for those damned counselors.

That night I slept again, maybe because the events of the night left me overly exhausted…

I dreamt, like I always do when I managed sleep.

This time it was about Naruto, big blue ocean eyes and soft skin something like caramel…

In my dream he looked almost as beautiful as he did when he looked at little things with love, things like his bracelet or the ocean itself…

Things like…

I woke up cold and alone in the room, my brother probably having slept on the couch.

This irked me just a bit, couldn't stand to sleep in the same room as his fairy brother I guess.

The worst part was that it never even occurred to me that I was chasing someone of the same gender, not until I brought him home to 'meet the folks' so to speak.

I almost wish it had never been pointed out yet knew it could never be undone.

I made a promise to myself, looking up at the old roof, that I would never use words like _gay_ or even _homosexual_ to describe what I had for him.

It was so much more than those meaningless words.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Just a heads up guys, I have a con this weekend so I won't be updating again until at least Monday!**

**I'm really surprised how many people haven't heard the term 'poof' before! I feel like an old bat! **

**SanJapan, here I come! Enjoy the chapter!**

It came to a point where being alone during the summer days was just that, lonesome. Out of habit I wandered into Tackle and Things, finding Tsunade dusting off what looked to be an old painting.

It only really caught my attention because of the young mermaid boy on it, holding the face of an assumed sailor with something sparkling in their eyes.

It was beautiful, crafted perfectly and able to capture a number of emotions I wasn't even capable of feeling. Despair, hope, love, it seeped from each paint streak and I knew I wanted it, if for nothing more than to stare at when I doubted my ability to feel…

"How much?" I asked softly, craning to look over her shoulder at the old thing.

"Not for sale hun."

I hadn't heard her say that before, the woman always looking to make a quick buck.

"I just got it in, beauty ain't it? I'm gonna hang it up right there, for everyone to see." She pointed at a cleared space behind the counter. "No point keeping it stuffed in some drawer right?"

"Why is it so important?" It was beautiful, sure thing but the woman had sold many beautiful things that most would hoard to themselves. "Is it… sentiment?"

She laughed, leaving me uneasy.

"I guess so, for Konoha. This, my boy, is history." She held it up, proud and with a grin that spoke miles about that pride.

From the newly acquired angle I saw that the two were sinking into the ocean, a tragic ending.

"He was lured away?"

"More like driven." She scoffed, stepping up on a stool to hang the masterpiece. "A hundred years ago they say, this man here, named Zabuza, fell in love with the most beautiful mermaid any had ever seen." Her tone was that of wonder and I had to admit from the painting, he could be considered beautiful. "The mermaid's name was Haku, long hair and sea bound he sat atop rocks and spoke to the sailor as if he were just another person. No secrets or tricks or even attempting to hide from anyone…"

I wondered if this was a story she'd often heard as a child, she spoke it so dedicatedly.

"All the sailors were angry at him and at Zabuza because he was the reason the boy kept coming. Haku never hurt anybody, he never killed or drowned or cursed even though his magic was as powerful as he was beautiful."

"How'd they know?" I asked, picturing in my head something similar to Naruto.

"Because he'd make every day perfect for Zabuza, he'd calm the sea or heal the sick, anything that made that man happy. He was the first mermaid to never show any ill-intent towards humankind." The frown on her face revealed that it was meaningless; of course this story couldn't have a good ending of any sort. "He just had a lot of love to give and although Zabuza never said it out loud, he loved the boy just as much."

It's easy to imagine, falling in love with something both beautiful and sweet.

That's normal isn't it?

"So much oppression, so much hate from all around…" I wished her solemn expression would disappear; this side of the woman was more unpleasant than how I usually found life. "One day the man stopped showing up, the sailors forbidding him to leave his house until the witch was gone. Haku was deterred though, he took a knife to his own hair, giving up his magic, and climbed out of the water on shaky legs."

My chest clenched.

"He walked proudly through the gaping town and _found_ Zabuza, asked him to go into the sea with him, said that they could be together forever."

"Wait, I thought he never tried to… you know… _eat_ anyone."

Tsunade shrugged, brushing her hair free from her face.

"No one knows if he got eaten, he just disappeared into the sea." She smiled up at the perfectly aligned painting. "Since then, Sailors stay out of each other's business, especially when it comes to sea witches. No one wants to drive someone into the sea."

"Does everyone think this way?" I whispered, eyes locked on the soft hand of the mermaid that held lovingly to the tanned sailor.

"Only the true believers; they know that you can't fight a mermaid, all you can do is resist them."

Walking down the docks I wondered if there were a number of people who watched us waste days together, silently hoping I'd come to my senses and just walk away.

As if I could at this point.

()()()()()()

"Temari… What do you think of Naruto?"

If dinner the night before hadn't sent my siblings into a state of shock, my inquiry sure did.

"What?" She croaked, dropping the pan she was washing back into the sink.

"Naruto…" My throat grew dry, the confidence I had to approach her dwindling instantly.

"He's… adorable." And she was smiling, eyes drifted to the ceiling as she thought back on dinner. "He's honest and a bit clumsy, somewhat mischievous if you ask me."

"How so?" I rose an eyebrow, I wasn't sure if mischievous was a word I would use to describe Naruto, even if he _was_ a mermaid.

"The bastard kept stringing you along." Kankuro piped up, making the atmosphere of the kitchen go cold. "Acting cute, making you cut up 'is food, coddle 'im like a _woman_."

"Kankuro!" Temari shouted, shutting off the sink. "He was just being flirty."

"Flirty? More like conniving."

"You're being ridiculous."

Shikamaru picked up his mug, obviously giving up hope for the situation.

"And you're okay with some blonde butt pirate seducing our little brother?"

"Do you even know your own brother? 'Gaara' and 'seduce' can't be accurately used in the same sentence."

I frowned, somehow they had managed to forget that I was sitting right there, Shikamaru sparing me a piteous glance.

"Do you really think this is dinner conversation?" The genius piped up, mug clicking on the table as he set it down to stand.

The spikey haired young man approached my sister, wrapping his arms casually around her waist from behind.

"Can't this wait?"

Kankuro scoffed, standing abruptly. "This is ridiculous, I'm out."

And he was off, slamming our room door behind him.

Temari sighed but I tried not to let it get to me.

"Just remember Gaara, no one is going to persecute you for wanting to be happy."

I didn't touch my food that night.

In bed I realized that I felt better, as if I'd gotten advice on something I wasn't aware had been bothering me.

Maybe I am the one that lost it; maybe Naruto wasn't a mermaid after all.

Maybe he was just someone special.

I didn't sleep; I just stared at that damned ceiling until sunlight filled the room.

()()()()()()

I waited a good couple of hours past dawn before looking for Naruto, walking briefly into every store and eatery we'd ever been to together. Declining invitations from Deidara, Shizune, Ino, and even Sakura as I made my way through every inch of the docks, looking for a yellow mop of hair I knew had to be lurking somewhere.

Upon finding no trace of him I wound up on the rocks, scrambling over them with a now practiced footing. Just beyond the highest point was that cove, as beautiful as the first day I saw it.

There were a great deal of things that I hated about that rotten boat, mainly that it was the closest thing the warm being that is Naruto had to call a home.

I feel like the universe was just being plain cruel to the boy, he who had seemingly never harbored ill-intent to anyone.

I also hated the sound it groaned out of its underbelly when I made each step, entering the broken and empty room. The only thing in there was the giant pile of thrift blankets the blonde had made into his bed.

It almost looked comfortable from here.

Maybe that's why I curled up in it, inhaling deeply the scent that always clung to Naruto, as if I were suddenly washed in his presence. I could tell that's where he slept by how _loved_ the worn pile felt.

I fell asleep almost instantly and above all, I didn't dream.

I woke to the feeling of water droplets on my face, opening my eyes in the shadowed little room I saw Naruto, sopping wet. He was looming over where I had curled up, obviously not intending to wake me with the unwelcome cold of the water.

His mouth hung open like he had been ready to say something, though now just stared and forgot to shut it again.

"Where were you?" I murmured, still groggy from my sleep.

His big blues just sparkled, a hand swiftly rushing to place a finger against my lips, silencing me.

That was almost comical, the blonde making me quiet down… Temari would have an aneurism.

Then he wrapped those fingers up in mine, a fit so perfect it gave me trembles, and then dragged me to my feet. Together we braved the rotten boat's deck and walked out into the sun, the clear water around us filled with large and grey masses.

They seemed to dance around our little boat.

"Better dolphins than porpoises…" Naruto whispered, showing off his teeth. "They're much nicer."

It was all he said before he let go of my hand, something I would have resented if he hadn't proceeded to leap right into the water. The dolphins were not off-set by his arrival, in fact gathering around to investigate the newcomer or perhaps, returning playmate.

He was soaked when he first arrived, wasn't he?

I tried to ignore the way he began speaking to them as if they could understand, I would give him his antics whether they were childish fantasies or real qualities.

I was getting used to the strange things I saw him wrapped up in.

If I ever doubted what he was, I take it back. I am nearly positive that he is some sort of deity from the sea.

And although this acceptance slowly grew on me, I felt no fear of the boy with the yellow hair.

Not even when he pleaded with me to join him in the water, something I obviously would not do.

Not because I feared him anymore, only because I feared where he might have come from.

()()()()()()

Sometime that night when everything was black I heard a voice.

Whether I slept and it dragged me into the world of consciousness or whether I had simply been snapped free from some reverie, I know not.

Either way Kankuro was up, whispering across the room from the darkness.

"I'm sorry Gaara." He confessed, something that must have been hard on him. "For the Naruto thing… No matter what 'appens, you'll always be my lil' bro."

My eyes felt like they were on fire. Why?

"Thank you, Kankuro."

He's silent after that, obviously awake due to his lack of snoring. I wonder if he was just staring up like I was, contemplating how things had turned out the way they did.

When did I transition from a lonely child who wanted nothing more than love into a spoiled preteen, tattooing my face and getting into fights that were hardly fair? When did that angry boy turn into a tired man? Someone who went on day by day waiting for something to happen that never really did.

Until now.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I'm not even sure what my story is about.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: So! Because I will sadly be without internet for God knows how long starting Tuesday, I am posting the final three chapters! Yay right? Except for the fact that I love you guys and I'll miss you until I can pay the bill again. ;_; **

"Hard worker my ass, maybe she works harder in bed, who knows." The griping came from Ino as she replaced my empty cider mug.

The topic of the day was Sakura and how she'd managed quite the promotion at The Leaf, something the blonde woman insisted was only because she'd been sleeping with the manager.

A strange way of putting it seeing as the pinkette and Karin had quite the fling and it was no secret. "We can't all get somewhere fucking the owner." She knew I would listen, I always had, and she knew I'd never side against her... even if I was never really on anyone's side.

Sometimes women found it nice to just talk without having to worry about someone criticizing their methods or theatrics, maybe that's why I had more female acquaintances growing up than I did male.

When you don't talk it's hard to keep the other boys interested, after a while they just move on and leave you behind to dig your toes in the dirt and wonder what you did wrong.

It was also during the woman's rants that she lost count of the refills she served me, resulting in me being charged for only one or two.

Then the bell above the door chimed; Naruto arriving ten minutes earlier than when we'd agreed to meet.

It appeared that we had similar thoughts.

When he sat down across from me it astutely shut the woman up, whether or not she recognized him from the picture the one known as Sasuke showed her I knew not, she just openly gaped at my guest.

"Se… separate tab?" She squeaked, clicking her pen.

"It's on me." I insisted before the blonde could answer, causing him to pout.

"So, what'll it be then?"

I hadn't seen the girl so formal since… ever.

"Chips, definitely chips! And a cola please." I could tell he was trying to reel in his happiness, something he proved to not be very good at. Ino seemed to catch on right away to the nature of our meeting and she spared me a risen eyebrow before waggling them both suggestively.

She left me to watch Naruto's face go beet red, a sight all of its own.

During the not-quite-date we talked about nothing important, Naruto taking every chance he could to force fried potatoes into my mouth and me trying to maintain steady breaths when he wrapped his legs around mine under the table.

My body reacted strangely even though it all felt very right.

The little ways he stroked my legs with his, how they formed together seamlessly in the secret cave of beneath the table.

Down where there was no one to oppress us, where our legs just held each other desperately and I finished the last of his chips, the world span slowly.

I walked him home to his boat, hands buried in my pockets the whole time, as if I were afraid where they'd end up if I let them roam free.

"Thanks for walking with me." He'd fallen into some sort of formality, I didn't like it.

"Hmn."

"Well, goodnight then." He whispered, though appearing frozen in his spot.

I could not bring myself to leave.

After a moment of silence, Naruto reached both of his hands out, cupping my face softly in a way that I could not resist, pulling me down to meet his lips.

For a few moments our tongues tenderly brushed, his hands sliding up into my hair while mine remained frozen in my pockets.

Coming up for air was a cold loneliness.

"Gaara… "

He whispered softly against my lips, the cool of the ocean breeze teasing our exposed flesh. My shudders faded away into the wind and all that remained was the heat of those palms traveling down to the curve of my neck.

"I think I'm in love with you." He whispered, lip quivering.

Once upon a time, I had doubted I even possessed a heart; yet there it was, slamming into my ribs and leaving my head dizzy.

"I-"

He cut me off with another kiss, sucking my lower lip into his small mouth and worrying it between his teeth.

He released me with a hardly audible _pop_.

"Tomorrow, I'll meet you by the pier."

I could do nothing but nod obediently, the night seeming to darken.

"But tonight…"

Those hands again, twisting and tugging in ways that shot pins down through my toes. My hands settled on his gentle curve of a waist, drawing the warmth closer and tasting, truly _tasting_ him… I would never forget the lingering in my mouth, a part of him had become a part of me.

"Tonight you have to promise to dream about me. Do we have a deal?"

I nodded dumbly, speech escaping me. Those thin lips curled into a smile that shone right out of his eyes.

If I had ever felt love in my life, it was in that moment that I recognized it for what is was.

When he walked away I was left with nothing but the crashing waves and my stuttering heart.

.

.

.

I wasn't _sneaking_ inside; sneaking would imply that I had been doing something wrong.

It just looked somewhat suspicious when I crept into the kitchen only to find Shikamaru sitting at the counter, a steaming mug in his hands.

"I like bullion; it warms you up from the inside." He mentioned offhandedly, staring down at what I now knew was soup.

He was very obviously trying to start up a conversation.

"Normal people like hot chocolate or coffee." I tried, opening the fridge and fishing out a block of cheese.

"But not you, you like cider."

I glanced back at him, lighting up the stove.

"I haven't seen you smile like that since you broke that boy's arm in high school."

"Smile like what?"

"Like you are now."

I froze, silent as I watched the cheese melt.

"If you were any other man at your age, arriving home at this time with _that_ expression…" He trailed off, resting his elbow on the table and chin in palm.

"It's almost _indecent_."

Shikamaru didn't laugh but he certainly had the critical chuckle down to a 'T'.

I finished my grilled cheese and sat beside him at the counter, tearing a piece off and eating it. We didn't talk, just sat in a comfortable silence and tended to our own.

Twenty minutes ticked by before Shikamaru stood, rinsing his mug out.

"Invite Naruto to dinner tomorrow." He hadn't asked nor suggested; I was positive Temari had put him up to it. "We're having what your sister refers to as Italian."

"We're doomed." I groaned.

Our teasing of my sister came to an abrupt halt when he placed a warm hand on my shoulder, expression unreadable as he eyed my plate.

I looked down to see what had caught his attention but saw nothing.

In fact, the plate was empty.

.

.

.

I did dream about Naruto that night, I dreamt he had a long winding tail the color of a summer sun and an inviting smile in perfect place.

.

.

.

When I met Naruto at the pier we said nothing, he only took my hand and let us silently watch the water. It must have been hard for him, resisting the urge to speak for so long…

He only did it for me.

I could tell by the way he would open his mouth as if to say something then shut it abruptly, rubbing his thumb against mine.

"People around here have many tales about mermaids." I said slowly, watching for even a slight twitch in his expression. It was hard to gauge what the shit-eating grin meant on the subject, amusement twinkling in his eyes. "What do you think about that sort of thing?"

It was strange enough that I was starting a conversation and stranger that I went so far as to bring up _mermaids_ with him of all people.

To be honest I was waiting for him to confess, throw his arms in the air and admit he'd breathed his fair share of ocean water.

"I knew a guy once," He started, stumbling over a bout of chuckles. "Had the face of a shark, called himself Kisame but who knew if that was a real name or not."

It wasn't really an answer, which itself was strange. Usually the blonde was very blunt so to literally tip-toe around a question was suspicious on its own.

"So do you think those stories are, you know, real?"

I never got an answer because at that moment the one known as Sasuke appeared, standing like something of a statue and staring wide-eyed at Naruto. The blonde looked just as much like a deer in headlights before he bolted, hand clinging desperately to mine. I couldn't fight being dragged off, going so far as to keep pace with him as we booked it across the docks, heading who-knew-where.

"Naruto!" The voice came from the raven that ran behind us, his taller shadow trailing a bit farther yet both gaining.

"Faster Gaara." The blonde huffed, twisting and turning through the group of sailors that had decided to gather in front of the bar.

"This is ridiculous." I bit, digging my feet into the ground and dragging us both to a halt.

"Gaara!" He whined, tugging my hand.

Sasuke was soon upon us, approaching Naruto much too quickly to feel comfortable about.

Maybe that's why I shoved him behind me and punched the fedora-sporting-man square in the jaw… or maybe I just didn't like the idea of some guy giving the blonde trouble, either way he went down with a _crack_ that left him curled on the ground in pain.

"Jesus Gaara, you didn't have to _kill_ him!" Naruto bleated, tugging on my sleeve while he looked upon the mass of flesh with pity.

"I don't recall you ever mentioning _not_ to."

By then the one I recognized as his brother had caught up, taking the time to smirk at the younger man who struggled to his feet.

"Damn it Itachi a little help." Sasuke groaned, clutching his face.

"Now where's the fun in that?" It was my first time hearing the mysterious older man's voice. It was cold and suave and everything else you could imagine it to be.

"Why'd your boyfriend hit me?" Sasuke demanded, glaring at the way he probably did to intimidate other students at school.

I replied with the one I used to use to intimidate the officers at the precinct.

"I think we just have a bit of a misunderstanding." Naruto spoke slowly, putting his hands up in defeat.

"A bit." I ground out, satisfied when the raven broke eye contact to look at the sea, anywhere else by my gaze.

Now, somehow we'd proceeded from a scene where Sasuke was complaining about being assaulted to one where the four of us sat in The Leaf and drank our beverages of choice.

"Erase any negative assumptions you've made about me." Sasuke stated, pushing Itachi's arm away. "I can do it myself." He bit, taking the ice from the man and holding it against his swollen jaw. "Like I was saying, I'm not here to hurt the little bastard; I just want to get him home."

Itachi thanked Sakura as she dropped off a plate with a single large, ripe tomato; picking up a knife and beginning to slice it.

"I don't have a _home_ and you know it." Naruto growled, slurping away at a bowl of steaming ramen.

"_Our home_ is your home, you know that." The blond ignored his statement to gush about the quality of the ramen here and to wonder why he had yet to try it. "Naruto! You can't keep running off, this is real life, remember?"

After the tomato was perfectly sliced, Itachi slid the plate over to Sasuke who proceeded to eat it plain.

"Big talk from a man who's still babied by his big brother."

_Don't laugh_.

"Where are you even staying? There aren't any motels around here; you're not sleeping on the streets again are you?"

"I'm staying wherever I want."

Their voices had begun to rise.

"And you're okay with this?" Quickly the attention had been drawn to me, all eyes waiting for an answer.

"Why do I have to be okay with it?" I took a long sip of cider. "If it's what Naruto chooses to do I don't have to right to say otherwise." This had Naruto smiling and Sasuke in a grimace.

"You've trained him well." He bit before standing angrily and storming out, leaving Itachi in his wake.

"You'll have to excuse his behavior," The older brother offer a half smile. "He really doesn't know how to control himself." Without allowing us to protest he paid our bill and sought after Sasuke, offering us a final wave.

By this point I knew that he was no mermaid hunter (thankfully) and actually took a moment to feel bad for hitting him.

The moment passed when I realized that although not intending to harm Naruto, he had intended to take him away from me; something equally unacceptable.

Something that lingered more than it probably should have was the question of _where_ was he trying to take Naruto back home to? As far as I knew the blonde had never really been settled anywhere before… then again, who knew how long Sasuke had been chasing him?

"He's my oldest friend, you know." The blonde admitted, scratching his head in almost shame. "I should have mentioned sooner I guess."

I spared him a softened gaze, really not angry at all.

"You should have." I spoke reflexively, not pulling away as he leaned in to my shoulder.

"I'm just sick of him and everyone else in my life acting like they know what's best for me." His voice was slightly muffled in my shirt but that was okay.

I think it also hid a few brimming tears.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Like I promised, this is the second to last chapter and the last one is coming up!**

Dinner that night went as expected; Temari doted on the blonde like he was her own child and Shikamaru inadvertently made him feel stupid just by speaking. Also, there was Kankuro, unable to hide his occasional disgusted glance yet trying _extremely_ hard (it was easy to tell) to be on his best behavior.

Shikamaru and I often exaggerated about how bad Temari's cooking was, we were all perfectly able to eat and enjoy our food as if it'd been made by the most dedicated chef, Naruto practically shoving forkfuls into my mouth.

"Try this Gaara! It's amazing!"

I had already reminded him four times that we had the exact same servings on our plates, something he blatantly ignored.

I'm sure that between my plate and his, I ate enough food to last me for several meals; something Temari was not quiet about noticing.

"I can't believe you cleaned your plate!" She gushed, taking it from in front of me to wash with the others.

"Temari." Shikamaru bit, giving her an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, forget I said anything." She fumbled, looking everywhere but at me.

"I agree! He used to hardly _touch_ his food." The loud statement came from Naruto, earning the shocked expression of everyone but myself. "That is not acceptable, so I make his ass eat, don't I Gaara?"

I thought back to all the time's he shoved spoonfuls of food into my mouth on our outings together, never really explaining why.

"All the time."

One thing this household did not talk about was my eating habits; it was almost as taboo as my lack of sleep or eyebrows. With the help of the blonde, the taboo had become nothing but another 'once upon a time'.

Maybe that's why Kankuro stopped glaring at him and took to the bottle, passing out on the couch. Temari looked about ready to scold him when Naruto hushed her, sneaking to the fridge and getting out a raw fish.

"This…" He whispered, slipping the whiskey bottle out of my brother's hands and replacing it with the dead creature. "is for those nasty looks at dinner."

We all got a good laugh when he sleepily tried to take a swig only to wake up screaming and spitting and throwing the poor thing right into the wall.

Naruto became part of the family that night in the eyes of the household, even Kankuro.

But most importantly, in mine.

"You know, for the first time in my life, I feel happy." I admitted when Temari and I were alone, my blonde and Kankuro wrestling (which resulted in Kankuro in a head-lock and being beaten with the dead fish).

"I know Gaara."

She smiled at me and thankfully her eyes were dry.

.

.

.

That night I heard Naruto before I saw him, swear words echoing outside my window with the occasional kick against the wall. When he actually made it to the glass he tapped it softly, trying to be discreet.

It was so absurd.

Part of me was compelled to leave him out there to marinate in his punishment for being so loud but I knew I never could.

"Hi." He mouthed, pressing a kiss into the glass. I raised an imaginary eyebrow at the gesture, staring at his flattened out fish lips.

He pulled back only enough to pout, his eyes suddenly glistening in a way that pinched a nerve in my chest.

Then he was back at the glass, lips puckered and pressed flat.

I rolled my eyes but played along, leaning forward and pressing my own into the glass, right where his would be.

Immediately I hated how cold it was, I'd much rather the glass not be between us.

I opened the window and helped him climb in, the simpleton unable to keep himself from laughing at the sight of Kankuro out cold clutching his trademark bottle.

"Does he ever put it down?" He whispered, abandoning his shoes.

"Not willingly."

I turned away for a moment and he was gone, now nestled rather anxiously under my comforter.

"Psst, I'm tired." He whined, nose peeking out from under it. "Let's go to bed."

I opened my mouth to protest that firstly, I had been in bed and his stumbling around outside had woken me, second, that was _my_ bed he was currently curled in. unfortunately the energy for words escaped me and my feet brought me to the edge.

"You coming?" Even in the dark his eyes were bright; maybe they had just plain started glowing.

How was I supposed to refuse those eyes?

I slipped under the cover next to him, something he took as an open invite to curl into my chest. He was not much smaller than me but our bodies merged comfortably, something I could even get used to.

I thought about telling him 'goodnight' or something equally endearing but the sound of his breath evening stopped me.

He was already asleep.

For the first time in my life I didn't wake with the sun, I wasn't even out of bed until sometime near noon.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes and saw a head of wild blonde hair just beneath my nose.

"Naruto… Wake up." I prodded, running my hand down his side unintentionally.

He inhaled sharply at the touch, sending pink to my cheeks.

"Gaara?" He groaned, opening his eyes slowly to meet mine then shift down to the hand I left resting on his hip.

I'm sure he turned just as red as I felt.

"Sorry." I swallowed heavily, removing the offending appendage quickly to seemingly both our disappointment.

I didn't get far before he was kissing me again, dragging my upper half practically over with him an unrealistic strength.

Whoever deepened the kiss I was thankful to; his tiny tongue so daring as it coaxed me in, teeth nipping graciously; I was consumed.

Moaning, either he or I it was loud and shared between our pressed together chests, reminding us both how real the other was.

His mouth was off mine too soon, traveling down to the base of my ear and cruelly abusing the trail it took.

The feelings were maddening, his heat pressed beneath me plain unfair.

Not to mention our breathing was so _heavy_.

I pressed my hands into the mattress, lifting my torso enough to detach and take a good look at him. He was flushed from nose to neck to the hidden skin beneath his wife beater, mouth red and slick and eyes _wild_.

"Wow." I exclaimed, drinking in the sight sprawled out on my bed.

I immediately glanced down to my pants, both surprised and not by the obvious bulge.

I looked back to Naruto to see he had looked down too, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he brought a knee up to none-too-subtly grind into my crotch.

"Na-Naruto!"

"Gaara are you- Oh God your fucking kidding me!"

I leapt out of bed quickly; managing to get my foot tangled in the covers enough to take me down. Unfortunately, the blonde had been just as tangled in them as I became and was dragged quickly to the floor and on top of me.

Any chance of salvaging the situation was long gone and all I had to be grateful for was that Kankuro could not see my raging _problem_.

"When I got up this morning and _'e_ was still here, I let it slide! But really Gaara! Do you 'ave to do _that_ in my room!?" The way he spoke was much more mortified than it was angry, a positive for the situation.

"Hey, this is also Gaara's room." Naruto stated factually, making sure to pull the blanket over his crotch when he finally got free.

"You're not helping." I whispered.

"I'm gonna go set my eyes on fire, thank you very much baby brother." The dry sarcasm in his voice left Naruto in a laughing fit as he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

"That wasn't awkward at all." The blonde managed, wiping imaginary tears from the corner of each eye. Needless to say my brother's intrusion had violently murdered the mood, something for which the blonde and I both seemed irritated with.

Not that I really knew what to do past that part anyway.

We snuck out of the house soon after, being incredibly careful to avoid Kankuro at all cost. I'm not sure why we were so cautious, the man obviously long gone after what he had sort of witnessed.

Well, I wasn't even sure what to call it.

Naruto didn't bring it up so I took his example, letting our trip to Tackle and Things remain silent. Halfway there he took the leap to grab my arm, resting his head against my shoulder in a way I doubted could be comfortable.

He didn't seem to mind and neither did Tsunade when we managed to squeeze the two of us through the door, the blonde unwilling to part.

"Look at that!" He exclaimed, pointing to the painting above the register, as beautiful as I remember it being. "That's amazing."

I looked at him with a gentle expression.

"Yeah."

He didn't let me pry him free for a while, when I finally managed he took off to search through some old boxes. I let him do as he pleased, leaning against the counter and watching him bound back and forth.

"I like that kid, he's got real spirit." She admitted, resting her chin in her palm. I think she felt that way because he reminded her of her youth; I could easily see the similarities. "A mouth for sure, but, spirit."

I nodded, that was one way to describe him.

Another would be boisterous, blatant, and downright addictive.

It didn't take long for the two blondes to fall into their usual argument, Naruto insisting that he get an ice cream scooper for half off because it had a broken slider. Why he wanted a broken ice cream scooper or even a proper one was beyond me, I just tried to stay out of it when Tsunade went off on how the listed price _was_ the on sale price and that Naruto was stingy with his money.

In the end he got the damn thing for a dollar less than the woman wanted, didn't matter much because she took money whenever she could get it, that's just the way she was.

"Naruto." I interrupted his gloating. "I have to pick up something for Temari, I'll meet you at the pub in half an hour." The blonde gave me a small pout but nodded anyway, bagging the scooper.

"Yeah yeah, I'll meet you there then."

I always hated going separate ways.

.

.

.

I was finished in twenty minutes, sitting down at a table that faced the door, waiting for my blonde to show.

To my slight irritation, Kakuzu and Hidan beat him, sitting down across from me and giving careless greetings.

"Gaara, I haven't seen you here in a while." Hidan chimed, red eyes glittering as he waved over a waitress. "A round of three please."

"Four." I corrected, brushing my hair out of my face.

"Shizune says not to serve 'im Alc'hol'" She murmured in a heavy accent, flinching when Hidan burst out laughing.

"Still a puppy I see, having your sister watch over you wherever you go."

"Fuck off." I bit, turning back to the young waitress I recognized as Hanabi, younger sister of the missing blue haired woman. "Three beers and an apple cider."

She nodded and gave a half a smile, rushing off.

"Who are you waiting for?" Kakuzu grumbled in the way he usually did, even as a monotonous person I found him unpleasant to be around.

"That would be me, I hope."

I looked up and saw Naruto, looking the same as I'd left him earlier only with a stony gaze.

"Well…" Hidan smirked darkly. "Aren't you a pretty little piece?"

The blonde in question grimaced and sent the white-haired man a glare; something he took with grain of salt.

Kakuzu rolled his eyes at the scene, obviously unable to care less about the blonde joining us.

"Ignore him, he's a tart." I stated simply, standing to pull the chair next to me out. Naruto gave one final pout before accepting the offer and seating himself, letting me push him in.

"So now you're a gentleman?" I ignored the comment and sat back down, gratefully accepting the cider Hanabi brought. She looked Naruto over twice, looking as if she were about to card him.

I was genuinely surprised when even the freshly eighteen and eager girl scurried off, not saying a single word.

"Something you've never been."

Hidan looked outright appalled, slamming back half his mug in one go.

"So now you're a _talker_!?"

"Shut up Hidan."

The man quickly obeyed Kakuzu's obvious threat.

I watched Naruto's expression change throughout the scene, finally satisfied when he settled into one of amusement.

It might have helped that he grabbed my hand midway the exchange.

"Since introductions are in order, this is Naruto." I gestured, not liking how Kakuzu leered at him the way an old man would.

"And Naruto, meet Kakuzu and Hidan, but don't worry yourself trying to remember their names."

"Ouch Gaara, right in the chest." He hissed, clutching away at himself. "I've only known you for years and you're already holdin' that blokes hand? I'm shattered."

I squeezed the hand in question and glared like I hadn't in a while.

"Continue."

He flinched a bit at my tone, trying to put his smile back in place. It was immediately wiped clean though when the man beside him let out a dark chuckle.

"We should leave red and his fishcake alone." His statement was in no way a suggestion, standing with finality and expecting Hidan to do the same. Like a good lapdog the younger man obliged, sticking his tongue out at my blonde one final time before they left.

"Lovely friends." Naruto bit, flipping the bird to Hidan's retreating back. "Do they have kennels or do they just sleep in alleys?"

"I think it rotates." That had him laughing a bit, something that disappeared as his expression grew serious once again.

"Do you think I'm a piece?"

I just stared at him. Had that comment really offended him so much?

"Of… treasure?"

He just stared for a moment before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Oh my God that was too cheesy!"

I just gave him a half smile; sure that Shikamaru would be proud at my ability to avoid possible disaster.

"Sorry, I guess I'm just in love with you."

I was up in a flash to help Naruto clean the drink he'd knocked over, the blonde a shade of red I'd never seen before and unable to look me in the eye.

I was very happy I'd managed to say it.

Shizune made her way to the table quickly with a hand towel. "I'm surprised! Usually it's the older folk who be makin' messes every day." Naruto probably apologized five times before she shushed him, gathering the empty glasses. "Don't worry yourself over it hon, will we be seeing a lot more of you around here?"

I'd never seen the blonde speechless before but he just stood with his mouth open like a fish.

"Hopefully." I answered for him, smiling at the brunette woman.

Why was everyone so shocked lately? Wasn't I allowed to be happy too?

After a moment of surprise Shizune smiled back, gathering the rest of the mess and rushing off, leaving the two of us alone.

"Do you mean it?" Naruto whispered, not sitting back down.

"Of course, it's nice having you around."

Part of me knew that that wasn't what he meant but I promptly avoided it, heading for the door.

"Coming?"

He gave me an exasperated look, something along the lines of 'what am I going to do with you?', but followed anyway.

My heart nearly stopped when I saw the waves, wild and crashing like monsters against the docks.

What if my hopes were for nil?

What if he left with the coming storm?


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Oh goodness! It's the last chapter! Whatever will I do with my life!? Gah! I'm going to go ahead and mention this chapter is pretty much NC-17, be warned. **

Outside my house I leaned into him, kissing the soft corner of his mouth.

He didn't like the tease, lifting his hands to guide my chin where he wanted it, which was where he could easily bury his tongue between my lips.

Uneasily, I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling his body close and letting myself truly experience the way he felt.

He felt like a fireplace on Christmas morning.

"Goodnight." He mumbled against my lips, sliding his hands down to my chest.

"Yeah, goodnight."

I let him go, something that grew harder each time.

The pain was somewhat alleviated by the soft smile and wiggle of fingers he left me with. Hopefully it could keep me for the night but I wouldn't count on it.

I'd become addicted to him.

Inside I was surprised to see Temari standing in the front hall, arms crossed and a knowing look in her eyes.

Behind her was Shikamaru, burying his face into his hand.

I knew I was busted.

"Is that it?" She teased, looking ready to jump out of her socks. She almost did when Shikamaru pinched her side. "What?"

"Can't you give him a break?" The lazy man sighed, rubbing his eyes. "It's bad enough you're spying on him through your window."

"What?" I felt my stomach churn.

"Spying is such a nasty word."

"Temari!"

"Enough!"

Both flinched at my outburst, that same shocked look on their faces.

I was just surprising everyone lately, wasn't I?

Well if you're going, go with a bang. Isn't that what Naruto always said?

"I think Naruto is a mermaid."

That stopped them in their place.

"What?" Temari balked, looking unsure of what else to say. "Did you say… mermaid?"

That's about when Shikamaru started snickering, drawing her immediate attention.

"What are you laughing at? Can't you see this is serious?"

I scowled; once again it was like I wasn't even in the room.

"Of course it's serious, only not why you think."

I didn't have time to watch my sister and her husband argue. For one I just wanted to go to bed and stare at the ceiling…

Maybe think about Naruto for a while.

"Wait Gaara." Shikamaru grabbed my arm, giving me good measure to shoot him a dirty look.

I felt like a rabid teenager at an intervention.

I disgusted myself.

"Why do you think he's a… you know…" He couldn't say the word with a straight face.

"Mermaid?" Temari tried, shifting awkwardly on her feet.

"Yeah, mermaid."

"I don't know." I freed my arm. I was lying; I knew exactly why I had my suspicions.

Fishing him (forgive the term) out of the ocean naked, his obsession with useless but pretty little things, living on a boat and building unrealistic connections with any creature from the ocean… he practically wrote them down on a list for me.

I could tell them that but then they'd press for more and what more could I tell them? That when he touched me it was like a spark of magic surged through my skin down to my toes? That his eyes were like a trench, overflowing with feelings and concepts I feared I'd never understand? That when I was around him… I never wanted the sun to come up on another day; that things were okay in a way they'd never been?

Yeah, I could tell them that.

_Right_.

"Gaara." I hated that voice he used; it was proof that he easily forgot that he was younger than me. "Do you think he is a mermaid because you feel like there is no other explanation for the way he showed up in your life and made it what you hadn't realized you wished it was?"

My heart was pounding; I'm sure my expression was just as startled as Temari's.

"I… He talks to fish!" I garbled out, unable to properly form words.

I never realized how well the brunette knew me, even after all these years of him trying to be my friend.

"Did you think that no one could ever just love you?"

"Shikamaru!" Temari chided, staring at him in adulation.

"Did you?"

I took a deep breath, trying to sort out the turmoil inside me.

I wanted Naruto behind me, fishing his hands into my shirt and holding me up.

In my heart he was.

"No. I didn't."

_Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry_.

I willed my sister, the tears already welling up in her big blues.

"But what if I'm right, what if he _is_ a mermaid?" I hissed, feeling like a cornered rat.

"Honestly Gaara," Shikamaru rubbed the bridge of his nose like he was speaking to a lower life form. "At this point, would you even care if he was?"

I inhaled sharply, the comment nothing less than a slug to the gut.

I was out the door with their calls of questioning echoing in my wake.

.

.

.

As dark as it was the cove was easy to spot under the sliver of moon, however, finding my footing while climbing the rocks was an arduous task of its own. Eventually I was able to clamor over and make it to the boat, something inside giving me the courage to leap right onto it, no fear for the churning black wave s that grew angrier and angrier.

Just as my feet touched the deck lightning struck somewhere far off, lighting the world for me.

I took it as a sign.

Naruto was probably asleep before I made my mad leap but the crack of my landing must have woken him because when I crept in he was up, holding his ice cream scooper out in front of him like a knife.

"I warn you! I took judo as a child!" He balked, arm shaking horribly.

In the dark I must have been indistinguishable; I guess spending most of my nights wandering around in darkness paid off ultimately in my sight.

"Am I supposed to be intimidated?"

He gasped at the sound of my voice, standing quickly and guiding me further into the blackness.

"For fucks sake Gaara, I almost killed you!" He groaned, running his hands up my chest, not caring about what it did to me.

"With an ice cream scoop…"

I saw his pout in a flash of lightning.

Then he tackled me to the floor with no warning, the boat lurching beneath us in a way that made my gut sink.

"I'll scoop out your eyes how about that!?" He laughed, finding the tender skin beneath my eyes with his thumbs and settling them there.

Then he grew quiet, stroking my face gently.

"You feel so wonderful." He leaned down to kiss my eyelid; letting his lips linger a bit. "Why are you here? There's a storm rolling in."

"I don't want you to leave." I admitted, inhaling his musky scent.

"What?"

"You came with the storm… I just felt you'd leave with it… but I don't want you to leave."

Laughter like bells echoed through the rocking boat.

"Oh Gaara… I'm not going anywhere." He kissed me roughly, settling himself just atop my crotch.

I think he noticed it as much as I did by the way he slightly wiggled his hips.

"Ah, Naruto…" I exclaimed, letting him hold my hands above my head. I don't think I could fight him off if I tried, not with the way he kept rocking back and forth.

Every so often thunder would shake the foundation and the lightning would give a clear glimpse of the blonde above me who was slowly working away at my shirt. Other than that I was left alone with the sensation of those nimble fingers pushing their way across my belly.

"It's not like you could get rid of me if you wanted to."

In the dark he made both a threat and a promise, a promise that as long as I wanted him he'd be here… and a threat that if I ever took my confession back I'd end up at the bottom of the sea.

That was fine with me.

My shirt was tossed aside, the thought of it falling into the water disappearing as soon as his prickly teeth met my neck. I waited for him to bite me, to suck me dry and just consume me right then and there.

He only stripped free of his own shirt before his teeth went down over my body, right until they were chewing at my pant line.

"What are you doing Naruto?" I whispered, panting and already feeling the sweat gather on my brow.

"Haven't you ever done this before?" He teased, the sound of my zipper opening practically echoing around us.

"I'm not exactly the social butterfly." I gasped, unsure of his fumbling hands as they took my dick in their grasp. "What are you going to do?" I managed, tossing my head back to stare at the rain that slipped through the hole in the roofing across the room.

"I can stop." He murmured, lips brushing the sensitive head cruelly. "If you're scared."

"I don't feel fear." But it was a lie because I did know fear, I feared he was a mermaid, I feared my family would find me insane. Lastly, I feared he would leave…

"Then stop asking so many questions." With that as a final statement he went down, practically swallowing up my dick in his mouth.

I always wondered if he'd eat me… this wasn't what I had in mind.

The way he felt around me was like nothing I could describe, it put me in a trance and I nearly lost my mind when he started to _suck_.

"Oh god Naru-Naruto." I shuddered, throwing my hands down to curl into his hair. Each strike of lightning gave me just another glimpse of the scene occurring between my legs, like little teasers that sent surges of pleasure through my body at the _sight_ even more so than the feel.

It was like I'd become a withering creature, tormented and calling out profanities and pleads for "More… ahhh… More." Meanwhile that look in the blondes eyes implied that he was having the time of his life watching the mess I was reduced to.

I'd never heard myself scream until he gave the head a rough suck.

I was finished.

"That's to be expected," Naruto chuckled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Since it's your fist time and all."

I groaned and slammed the back of my head down into the wooden planks, my chest heaving with each struggled breath.

"But, this hardly seems fair at all." His voice came out like a purr, climbing right back on top of me and settling just below my exposed (now limp) dick. "You know I like things fair."

But it wasn't fair, I just spent myself only to have my sensitive prick being fondled and tugged right back to life.

"Naruto…"

"Gaara…" He hushed me, one hand working me back up while the other brushed a sweaty lock of hair from my face. "I really love you, you know that? You believe me don't you?" His voice had a softness to it that was promising; I'd believe anything he told me in that tone.

"Of course." I managed, biting at my lower lip.

The blonde stretched out and pressed his warm chest against my belly, the feel of my renewed erection pressed into his flesh leaving me dizzy.

"You've never been with anyone… have you?" He scraped his tongue along the shell of my ear midsentence. I only shook my head. "What about an awkward middle-school kiss? You know, with some girl behind a dumpster before you realized you liked blokes." A kiss pressed into my neck before he pulled back up, finally satisfied that I was hard enough.

"I'm not into… blokes." I confessed, letting him guide my hands to his boxers and tug them down to gather at his thighs.

"Fooled me."

Was it normal for us to have small talk while I touched him nervously, rubbing my thumb into his head?

He shuddered so thoroughly I was sure he'd break.

"It's just you."

He was standing on his knees then, hovering over me like some glistening deity in the little light we were blessed with. By now the rain came down in torrents on the roof and I was sure that if I wasn't so _distracted_ at the time the rocking of the boat would have sickened me.

"You know what to say to make me feel special." He murmured, burying two fingers into his mouth.

"You are to me." I watched him suck those digits, compassion spilling freely from his eyes. Then that hand was behind him, inserting a finger slowly into himself. The scene was excruciating, the way he arched his back and tried so desperately to steady his breath.

He was beautiful, more beautiful than any century old mermaid frozen forever in an old painting.

"You're killing me, Gaara." He panted, removing his hand and grabbing my dick once more.

I couldn't respond because I experienced something incredible in that moment. Like burying a knife into a hot body I sank right in, a twisted look of pain and concentration on my mermaid's face.

"Ahhh, oh God, you feel so…" I gasped, letting him shift a bit until I was comfortably filling him. "This is… this… is…"

"Nothing…" Naruto panted, repositioning himself. "This is nothing." Then he jerked his body up, spitting me out before he slammed back down.

And that's how it went.

I gasped and moaned and made every other animalistic sound I hadn't known myself capable of while he bounced against me, faster and faster and _faster_. Every so often lightning would flash and it was something like watching a camera go off in spurts.

Each picture was a gift.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah."

_Flash_.

"Aaaahhh, ah, ah."

_Flash_.

Naruto's voice.

"Ah, Ga, Ga, Gaara…"

_Flash_.

"Touch me Gaara."

I did as I was told, gripping his member and stroking it against the precum that leaked freely from the tip.

"Aaaah, yes, just like that." He coaxed, practically doing the work for me as he slammed against my upward thrusting hips. "Oh God, Gaara I'm gonna…"

His expression sent me spiraling into my orgasm, riding it out into his ass as I pumped him into his own.

We were reduced to a sticky mess curled up in a pile of blankets.

Even the sound of the storm could not ill my ease as the blonde curled up in my arms like he belonged there.

"I've never done that before." He murmured into my chest.

"You sure spoke as if-" He cut me off with a finger to my lips.

"I've never made love before."

That night we couldn't have left the boat if we wanted to, the storm so violent I don't know how we stayed tied to that miserable rock.

The constant rocking put us both to sleep.

That storm that I felt so threatened by at first lasted three long days. Three days of harassment on Temari's part to wear her old plastic parkas, three days of Kankuro sleeping on the couch because he was worried we'd screw like bunnies while he was out cold from his constant supply of alcohol… three days that we never were apart longer than it took to shower or use the toilet.

Best three days of my life.

At the first sight of sun we sat together on our pier, yes, _our_ pier. We watched the water, calmer than I ever remember it being, knowing that the storm had long blown over.

And he was still here, my mermaid, holding my hand and smiling like the nymph he was.

Then, true to character, he gave me a wink and leapt into the grey water, his splash dampening my legs.

He didn't ask me to go in, by now he learned that it would never happen.

I guess I'm full of surprises.

The water was cold as it swallowed me, not surprising nor entirely unwelcome. When I rose for air he was looking at me like I'd grown a second head, a look I'd grown used to and learned to ignore.

Then he kissed me tenderly, a little '_thank you_' in how his tongue moved against mine.

I was not surprised by the cool feel of a pearl wrap around my leg, the sensation slipping away as quickly as it came.

I didn't say anything because my mouth was busy.

.

.

.

Five minutes later I was screaming through mouthfuls of water, wishing to any god that existed for death to come quickly.

I experienced my first sting from a hardhead.

It took three people and a pair of tweezers to pry the spine from my thigh, although Naruto was plenty concerned for me the whole time, I swear I could still see a bit of mirth sparkling in his ocean eyes.

He must have found it painfully (very, _very_ painfully) ironic, though I couldn't stay mad for long.

I just made a mental note never to go in the ocean again; though holding my loves hand, I knew it was a lie.

I knew I'd follow him anywhere.

You're probably upset that a great many things have been left unanswered, but let's be fair, you know as much as I do.

It's like Shikamaru once said, for those who believe there is more than enough proof; for those who don't, there will never be enough.

I think it's up to you to decide, though, that's just my opinion.

**A/N: HOLY WOW! Is it over? Can it really be over? It IS! Well, if you're still reading this, KUDOS! I'm so glad to have had you as a viewer and every single review that this story has accumulated is absolute love! **

**I guess I'll make one final advertisement for my prompt blog, the link you can find listed on my profile. I offer a great variety of pairings from different fandoms so check out the approved list before submitting your prompt! **

**I love you all!**


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